When 9/11 happened, we were stunned by how could a small
band of people bring an entire nation to its knees. Not only those attacks
killed more than 3,000 Americans but it also ended up costing vast sums of
money. This was the opening move of a
different type of war.
As we all know, in retrospection, that these tragedy could
have been prevented. The perpetrators had taken training in how to fly
commercial jetliners. The cabins of the airplanes were not locked so anyone
with bad intentions could have walked in. The effectiveness of security
apparatus was not up to the par. The murders had left enough clues that they could
have been caught prior to committing their heinous acts.
In the ensuing years, steps have been taken to prevent such
tragedies. The airport security has been beefed up, sophisticated databases have
created of suspected terrorists, and their movements and conversations are
routinely monitored to identify potential plans being hatched. Besides, cockpit
doors are now locked preventing hijacking of an airplane.
In response, the terrorist changed their methods. The attacks
in San Bernardino and Orlando were surprising because otherwise ordinary
people, not on anyone’s terror lists, perpetrated them. Instead of sending men
with bad intentions, they just converted local folks to commit crimes.
These tragedies could not have been stopped by tighter law
enforcement. There are lots of people being tracked by our fine folks at
Homeland Security and local law enforcement agencies. However, it is almost
impossible to find needles in haystack, or even worse, as the head of FBI said,
identify hay that might become a needle.
Preventing all Muslims from entering our country is such an
asinine idea that it is not even worth discussing. Besides being
unconstitutional and so very un-American, such a move would not have caught
these murderers…they were American citizens, not foreign nationals.
The only thing that can be done to prevent these terrorist
acts, or at least their severity, is to make it impossible for civilians to lay
their hands on assault rifles. Such a law is long over due, and would have
passed if not blocked by our homegrown coconspirators, those fine folks at NRA.
The reverse argument, to let everyone have guns is as stupid
as banning all Muslims. One would not be able to separate good guys from bad
guys when the shooting starts and there would be a total Western movie style
shoot out, resulting in an even larger tragedy.
Now, with the terrorist act in Nice, we are confronted with
even more challenging environment in which a radicalized terrorist used his truck as a weapon. What can be done? You
cannot ban trucks. Perhaps you can install temporary truck barriers whenever a
group of folks are going to gather on streets. However, how strong will the
barrier need to be to stop a massive truck at full speed? How feasible would it
be to install such barriers every time a group wants to congregate?
I think the only option at this stage is to prevent ordinary
folks from becoming radical. This process of radicalization does not seem to
require personal contacts, say at places of worship or travel to hotbed
countries. If it did, it would be relatively easy to monitor.
Radicalization is done largely through the Internet. As I understand,
there are huge numbers of videotapes and websites available on-line for the
disenfranchised person to tap into to reinforce his/her budding hatred toward
the Western way of life. We have to strangle that channel hard.
I am sure that Homeland Security is doing the best it can
but they are probably stymied by our desire for privacy. One of my
ex-colleagues, working in the defense industry tells me that Ed Snowden, the
traitor, gravely damaged our ability to listen in. We have to give permission
to people we trust for keeping us safe, so that they are able to go into the entire
Web, the part we see and part that is considered “dark,” and shutdown every
source of radicalizing material available on-line.
I am reminded of a science fiction movie, “Invasion of Body
Snatchers,” in which the aliens try to conquer earth by secretly converting
ordinary citizens into aliens, with no change in outward appearance. This is
what is happening now. The only way to make a difference is to deny distribution
channels to the “aliens” even if it means invading our privacy.
We cannot go on living
like this, in constant fear of our friends and neighbors getting infected and
becoming rabid murders.
