One year ago today, US soil was attacked. I expect to hear a lot about it in the news. I expect to see a lot of ribbons. I expect to see a show of security.
That’s why I’m not going to watch the news, wear a ribbon, but will make a comment on security.
You see, a lot of American have already mourned and come to emotional terms with what happened. A day of remembrance is nothing more than a day of television ratings. Fair-weather patriots bother me even more; too many people just wear a ribbon to call attention to themselves more than to silently commemorate. The loss of Jim Henson, Gene Roddenberry, and George Burns seemed far more sincere by Americans on many accounts. Perhaps that’s because we knew them more intimately, and we know we’re supposed to feel bad, but just don’t have the connection. I feel it’s more important to be honest about your emotional state than to follow the trend of buying a $10 flag for your car and taking a company mandated minute of silence during your lunch break. Is it true loss felt, or more of the desire to just fit in because of peer pressure?
Air travel will be particularly light as American’s fear to board a plane this anniversary. We’ve got scud missiles pointed at the clouds. NIH is checking every single car that passes through its gates. Many US citizens tremble in not being able to leave Northern Virginia fast enough, wanting as much distance as possible between them and the District of Columbia.
It just seems like society doesn’t have common sense anymore. Everyone thinks the terrorists are out to get him or her specifically. At SAIC when the planes were falling from the skies, they locked down their parking lots and you had to show a badge. If you’re a terrorist, and you’ve got scare resources of hijacked planes, where are you most likely going to put it… some place of specific military importance or of high political interest, or one of hundreds of SAIC buildings spread over the country? Hmm. Let’s think.
GEIS did the same thing for things like the Gulf War or threats from Iraq, and at times even took the GE meatball logo off the building. Security by obscurity just gives a false sense of safety. It’s like covering your eyes so the monsters under the bed don’t get you.
We know for a fact that the terrorists we’re dealing with are patient. They’ll sit low for 10 years or more just planning. You think somewhere along the way they’d have access to a phone book with a street address. I’m sorry, but many of us just aren’t that important enough to be attacked: what we do or produce can quickly be picked up somewhere else by someone else. Such an attack is wasted, and the terrorists know that.
I understand the publicly stated reasoning behind it all: “we deal with government,” “we make parts used in missiles,” “we deal with the stock market.” The reality is employees who don’t understand risk analysis feel scared, and making a show of activity is creates the illusion they’re protected. This way they’ll go back to being productive and making money for the company.
Take the anthrax scare. The day it came out, the very day, near the very hour of the news report, SAIC had to call in the HAZMAT team because someone reported seeing a white substance in the stall of the women’s bathroom. When this happens, every call must be taken seriously. It’s expensive, it’s inconvenient, and it shuts the place down. It places a taxing burden on emergency response units, and those who seriously need it don’t get the on-demand service required for a real emergency. Consider this, Bin Laden himself sneaks past dozens of guards and automated systems, by passes the lobby, conference rooms filled with military, skips over a great biological target like the cafeteria, and goes up half a dozen or so floors, sneaks into the women’s bathroom, and drops a white substance overtly on the floor to be seen and recognized by the untrained. Great plan, or irrational panic? I’d argue that more financial damage was done by Americans who did a knee-jerk reaction without asking “come on, is this a likely target of benefit” than the planes themselves. Naturally, hours later the lab reports it’s dust from the toilet paper rolls. Go figure. And to be fair, other companies were doing the exact same thing. What did security do? They passed out handy-wipe packets, the kind you get to wipe your fingers after a BBQ dinner, to everyone… yeah, that’ll stop Anthrax.
Let’s get real, should a terrorist want to breach any of these facilities, do they have the resources to fake a badge? Sure do. But why go through that trouble, when you can point a machine gun at a minimum wage security guard. I once asked an AOL guard what he’d do if a gunman came in demanding to pass. The answer: “Hand him my keys and resign.”
Countries are always ready to re-fight the last war, never the current one. We assume that the tactics used will be the ones used again. That’s not how wars are fought. Look at how the Red-Coats expected the engagement — let’s point guns at each other, you fire at me, I fire at you, we reload, and go till no one’s left to drop. Change tactics, boom. Fast forward to present day, we’ve got all our defenses set up so that we can address a missile-flying and world-war-II threats. Duh, hasn’t anyone realized the enemy is already on our land, has been for years, and has access to deploy from within our borders? Crippling a country has become so much easier now that people won’t defend themselves and we rely on supply chains and lack the knowledge of basic survival skills.
I loathe the airport and NIH security policies. First of all, ask yourself, if you were going to conduct another attack, would you be doing it on a day the Americans were waiting for it? The element of surprise just worked so well last time. So, where will todays stepped up security measures be tomorrow? Why weren’t they in place yesterday? This is the same issue I take with holiday-only patriots — where was your pride of country before this event, and why did it fade so quickly?
What’s worse is that even if we had all the security policies in place, all the time, even back in 2001, it would not have prevented the attacks. Even the US government admits that. So, I ask, why if we’ve just declared the procedure benefit-less do we engage in doing it, especially at such cost? The answer: because if we don’t do something, people will says “you’re not doing anything” — and that looks politically bad for those holding public office.
It doesn’t take half a mind to fashion a decent weapon real-time on an aircraft from readily available supplies. There are so many ways to bypass security that even 60 Minutes got past airport security with a gun on national television.
I’m surprised at how panicked Americans get, too. Two planes barely put a dent in the real face of New York. One plane damaged only a section segment of one wall at the Pentagon. Yet, people were acting like DC had been flattened and the shock wave was traveling hundreds of miles. That’s movie special effects, not reality. I thought other countries had a problem with conceptualizing the size of the United States, apparently it’s own citizens do as well. If something really bad is happening, please leave the public utilities and transportation means open to emergency units. News will still travel.
The problem with current security policies is two fold. Number one, we don’t take into account that the attacker is willing to trade their life for their goal. This one is hard to combat, because the common set of deterrents don’t work. Number two, we don’t take a pro-active stance; we believe the world thinks like us, shares our views, embraces diversity, and as a whole wants to get along. People, we’re the ignorant ones.
What this attack has shown is how unprepared we are, and more importantly, were. We can’t want the government to protect our borders and at the same time deny them the means to provide that defense. Defense doesn’t equate to war. And each time a country has been completely subdued by force, peace results, and usually good relations after the fact. Each time we let the politicians dictate how, we still have skirmishes and we’ve lost. Think Japan. Think Korea.
Because we’re in a panic, many Americans are willing to trade privacy, freedoms, and liberties for security. I shake my head at this behavior. Safety does not have to come at the expenditure of these things, and more importantly, shouldn’t. Plus, the “security” we’re getting is illusionary; it’s not the real kind that gets the job done. It’s a show.
Let’s wise up and start asking the right questions. What is the realistic probability that terrorists are going to attack today? …that they are going to attack where you specifically work and live over better targets? …and what is the cost you’re paying.
As the old joke goes, “elephants are excellent at hiding in trees.” “What do you mean, I’ve never seen one before.” “My point exactly.” Before you allow fear and stress to ruin your emotional state and you’ve tossed every principle being an American is about out the window, ask yourself if those guys protecting trees from having elephants climb in them are actually providing value, and while you’re at it, find out how many elephants they’ve personally been able to stop in the past.