London Bombings
Well, it was only a matter of time. The problem with putting so much effort into securing our airports is that terrorists will just switch tactics to the next vulnerable target down the line.
It’s like how I decide where to park my bike. As long as there is a nicer bike on the bike rack than mine with a flimsier chain or lock securing it than the one I have, I’ll lock it up there. I don’t need the best, strongest chain, I just need a stronger chain than yours.
Or like the apocryphal story of the guys running away from lions. The punchline: “I don’t have to run faster than the lion, I just have to run faster than you guys.”
Now, shift your perspective a bit. Imagine you work in the jungle with 3 or 4 of your closest friends, Alice, Bob, and Carol. Six months ago, Alice was the slowest runner in your group and got mauled by the lions. She’s healed up now, lost 40 pounds, and is now much faster. Now the slowest member of your group is Bob. What do you do? Make Bob faster? Now Carol is the slowest. You all can’t run faster than the lions, and someone has to be slowest.
I don’t know who was the slowest on 9/11, Airports, Borders, or what. But it was Airports that got mauled by the lions (of course the analogy breaks down a bit because the direct damage caused by the terrorists wasn’t done at any airports, but bear with me).
It’s obvious that running can’t be our only strategy in trying to get away from lions, just as beefing up our security can’t be the only strategy in trying to foil terrorist attacks. So what do we do? Bruce Schneier has said that in terms of return on investment, the two best things to do when combating terrorism is to get rid of terrorists (whether that means we should strive to remove “root causes” of terrorism or that we should just start capping terrorists (or a combination of the two) is a very important question, but not relevant to this post) , and to beef up the capacity and training of EMTs, firefighters, and other first-responders. (To put it in lion terms, we can start hunting lions and get some better medical facilities in place where lions usually attack.)
Beefing up security is only going to help up to a certain point, because *something* will always be the weakest link. If not the airports, what then? The power grid? Oil refineries? Sea ports? Sports arenas? The lion will catch up with one of them sooner or later, unless we can get rid of the lion first.
Getting rid of terrorists and improving our first-responders is going to help us no matter what tactics terrorists use or targets they go after.
As an aside, there is another tactic we could use when fighting lions or terrorists. Just build a big wall between us and them. This is what Israel is doing with the Palestinians. Now, I hasten to point out that I’m not advocating such a policy for the U.S. by any means, nor am I condoning Israel’s actions. Something about walling off an entire problematic group strikes me as deeply wrong, even anti-Christian. At the same time I don’t see any other solution for Israel while the Palestinians remain committed to perpetuating the cycle of violence.
July 7th, 2005 at 12:24 pm
Until the lions have been exterminated, what about arming poor Alice, Bob, Carol, and you, so that you have some hope of defending yourselves against the lions (and those who think that you should feel sorry for the lions and not resist being eaten)?
July 9th, 2005 at 12:00 am
but what was Alice doing poking the lion cubs with a stick anyway?
There are going to be violent extremists running around trying to kill people. Stopping them is a good thing. At the same time though maybe it would be a good idea not to make it even easier for the wackos to convince previously sane people to join their effort.
If a Palestinian gunman goes and shoots 5 Israelis maybe bulldozing the homes and crops of everyone in the village which that one gunman came from is going to teach that guy a lesson. Or you might just end up with 5-10 more gunmen who until that point believed in peace? Palestinians aren’t the only ones committed to the cycle of violence.
maybe shoot the lions before they grow up and can chase you? and to take care of the ones that are already grown up you could shoot and kill all of their food so the lions starve. of course you might miss a few, so you should also torch all the plants around so the prey animals starve to death too. its certain to get rid of those pesky lions. hey wait, why are there suddenly lions everywhere?