War on Terrorism - Part 3 of 5

The next attack is coming. If you have some worldly experience, you probably have a good idea how to protect yourself from common street crime. You lock the doors of your house, have outside lights on motion-detector switches, park in well-lighted areas when out in public, and maybe even use a steering-wheel lock and have a security system for your home. Good for you. You are probably doing enough to protect yourself and your family from 99% of the criminals who practice their trade no more than 5-10 hours per week. They are criminals simply because they are lazy and don’t want to work for a living. Lazy criminals always go for the easy target. All you have to do is make yourself a harder target and they’ll quickly take you off their list of potential victims. The other 1%, though, is your problem. If there is a burglar in the area who works 60-80 hours per week perfecting his technique and then making and rehearsing his plans, you’d better hope he doesn’t have his eye on your house or your car, because he’s probably got a 99% chance of success.

In the same way, we need to acknowledge and accept that we cannot, and, in some respects, should not, try to make the U. S. completely impervious to terrorist attack. The idea is absurd. If we can’t stop petty crime, how can we imagine that we can keep terrorists, who spend years planning a strike, from attacking within our borders? I, for one, do not want to live in a police state – and that is what would be required to even approach impermeability. Our security services have done a great job since 9/11, but expecting them to maintain perfection is unreasonable. The sad fact is that, though we will always have some degree of vulnerability because we are a free and open society, when the next attack occurs the focus will quickly shift to blaming one or more government agencies and many individuals for “allowing” the event to occur. House & Senate hearings will ensue and everyone will be talking about what “government” must do to keep America safe. We’ll probably even be treated to the Congressional chorus singing “God Bless America” on the steps of the Capitol again. Won’t that be a joy?

But, if we take the courageous but logical step to accept that we probably are going to be hit again, how do we prepare? What do we prepare? Find out in part 4 tomorrow.