London Calling

Let's be honest here, okay?  The idea of blowing up innocent people is the hot new Trend of the Century.  The pattern:

• 9/11
• Madrid
• Palestinian attacks against Israel
• Arab attacks against Iraqis
• London
• etc.

There really isn't much point any more in war critics being smug about our not finding WMD in Iraq or Bush taking us to war because he'd already made up his mind.  It's true enough, and it's important information, and maybe on some alternate Earth in the multi-verse, their George W. even got impeached for it.  But here, on our Earth, we need to stop focusing on this personal "thing" he evokes from a lot of people and accept our world for what it is and deal with it.  In my mind, this means it's now time to move back to the central point.

The kind of homicidal fanatics who are willing to do the above will deploy a nuke or a biological agent or whatever they can get their hands on... and they will deploy it against their favorite target... at the earliest moment they can do it.  Whether Bush was right or wrong, that is exactly what he thought Saddam Hussein wanted to do.

Time again to re-calibrate our feelings and make new plans.  There is no Hollywood ending to this one.  This is real, people, and it hasn't gone away.  Here's what Tony Blair had to say in the immediate aftermath of the attacks:

"The perpetrators of today's attacks are intent on destroying human life.  The terrorists will not succeed.  Today's bombings will not weaken in any way our resolve to uphold the most deeply help principles of our societies and to defeat those who would impose their fanaticism and extremism on all of us.  We shall prevail and they shall not."

The question:  How do you protect against fanatics who specifically target non-combatants for murder, striking at locations where lots of people go in their daily lives?  This isn't something that can be blamed on Bush or Blair, or out-sourced to Homeland Security alone.  We all have to think about this.

Back when I was chairman of the TV Academy, following 9/11 (remember canceling the Emmys twice?), we had a lot of security meetings, as you can imagine.  These hard-boiled, bottom-line security types we dealt with felt that it was always possible to protect a single target on a single day, like the Emmys or the Oscars.  What they said was impossible was protecting all targets all the time.  Well, that's pretty much what we're looking at.

Comments

[Terry Zabel]

The only way to eliminate these terroristic acts is to give in to them. Then unfortunately those that oppose those currently practicing terrorism will see that terrorism works and they will start their own campaign of terror. We need to continue to fight terrorism, understanding that when you are dealing with people who don't respect life(their own or others) we will never get rid of terrorism.

[Bryce Zabel]

Hey...Christopher! Thanks for being among the first to comment at the re-incarnated TypePad blog. One thing we have to consider is the definition of success. We are unlikely to "defeat" the "insurgents" (terrorists) in that, as today's London bombings demonstrate, an aggressive nutcase can pretty much strike anywhere at anytime. I think the untalked about Iraq agenda is that it's better to take 'em on there than here.

[Christopher Crayton]

Bryce,

Thanks for your comments. I have no clue when I will change my blog’s title, but when I do, I shall yet you know. I guess I’m waiting for that “moment of clarity,” if you will. ;-) In the meantime, check back periodically for new posts. =-)

I had never heard of TypePad before, but I really like its features! It seems to be a bit more full-bodied than Blogger.

I agree that it is practically impossible to protect every citizen at all times from attacks such as the ones that you mentioned. All that we can do is learn from the past, implement and enforce practical security measures, and be more vigilant (cliché, I know) in the future. Most importantly, after we grieve the loss of our fellow countrymen, we must continue to go on with our lives. If we do not do that, then we have already effectively laid down our lives.

Regarding Iraq/Afghanistan, I don’t necessarily agree that “we’re stuck” in those two countries, but I do agree that we do need a new plan. If Plan A is not working, then we must go to Plan B. If there is no Plan B, then we must come up with a Plan B, not continue to stumble down Plan A’s path because of our pride.

Anyway, keep on posting! I enjoy reading your blog!

[DF]

On moving back to the central point:

Today on the radio (http://www.wunc.org/tsot/), Stanley Hauerwas, Time Magazine's Theologian of the Year a couple of years ago, and as ornery a critic of the Bush administration as you will find, said flat out that it would be immoral to pull out troops at this point. "We're stuck," he said.

Time for new ideas and approaches.