Terrorism 101

The chatter is up. Terrorist websites are telling us we are on the eve of destruction. Michael Chertoff feels insecure, which is not a good thing if you are head of Homeland Security. He has a sick to his stomach “gut feeling” that something is in the air. Adam Gadan, our very own Southern California Taliban spokesman, threatens us with violence, retribution and destruction.

Are we twitching yet, living in denial or just becoming blasé? Frankly I think we are acting and reacting appropriately—except for some of our politicians. They are jumping on the threats which is a bad idea. You don’t fight domestic terrorism by reacting to every threat. The work has to be constant, often in the background, and not dramatic.

With the warnings yesterday, New York went on alert. No, they didn’t change their color warning, but they put out extra police and increased the inspection of cars, vans and trucks. This is a terrible idea.

We learned from 9-11 that the terrorists had rehearsed, made dry runs and were prepared. We must assume that they are still interested in hurting us, preparing to attack us and are more patient than we. By jumping on their threats, we show them how we will respond. We show them where we will send our police and inspectors and what properties and targets we will most strongly defend.

Worst of all, today we showed them our lack of patience. We kept the cops and inspectors out on the streets for about 10 hours. Then we went back, at least publicly, to the status quo. If I’m a terrorist and have passed Terrorism 101, I will issue my threats, see where the defense goes, wait 18 hours and then strike.