Saturday, August 12, 2006
Six Lessons
John Tirman, executive director of the Center for International Studies at MIT, has a piece titled the "Six Lessons from the London Airline Bombing Plot. The first lesson is that it "was law enforcement. Law enforcement. Not a military invasion of Pakistan, Iran, Lebanon, Egypt, or Iraq" that led to the plot being uncovered. He's right, bombing other people really doesn't do much to stop terrorism. In fact, bombing other people and occupying their countries may foster terrorism. Tirman's fifth lesson is something everyone should remember while the Bush regime and the Republican Party engages in its latest round of scare politics.
For all the billions we've spent on the "war on terror" we've done precious little to curb the attraction of al Qaeda style terrorism. Why is it that college educated family men in the UK find al Qaeda's message attractive? Five years on and we really don't have a good answer because we haven't really been trying to find one. Until we do, we'll face more plots.
John Tirman, executive director of the Center for International Studies at MIT, has a piece titled the "Six Lessons from the London Airline Bombing Plot. The first lesson is that it "was law enforcement. Law enforcement. Not a military invasion of Pakistan, Iran, Lebanon, Egypt, or Iraq" that led to the plot being uncovered. He's right, bombing other people really doesn't do much to stop terrorism. In fact, bombing other people and occupying their countries may foster terrorism. Tirman's fifth lesson is something everyone should remember while the Bush regime and the Republican Party engages in its latest round of scare politics.
the plot again reveals how ill-equipped the U.S. Government has been in anticipating plausible attack scenarios and taking steps to prevent them. Liquid bombs were so hard to figure out? Al Qaeda already tried it. DHS has almost completely missed the threat, just as they are missing the vulnerability of cargo holds and God knows what else.Spending money protecting pop corn factories in the midwest instead of improving port security, really improving airport screening (as opposed to the dumb show we currently have), and focusing on known threats isn't making America any safer.
For all the billions we've spent on the "war on terror" we've done precious little to curb the attraction of al Qaeda style terrorism. Why is it that college educated family men in the UK find al Qaeda's message attractive? Five years on and we really don't have a good answer because we haven't really been trying to find one. Until we do, we'll face more plots.