More Perspective

In the Dallas Morning News yesterday, a front page article entitled Gravity of Failed Bombing Emerges, quoted the following:


“WASHINGTON – A day after Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said there was ‘no indication’ an attempted Christmas Day attack aboard an airliner was connected to a larger plot, there were increasing signs that the failed bombing may have represented one of the most serious terrorist threats in the U.S. since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.”

Let me repeat the last phrase……..”since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001”. If my math is correct, that is just over 8 years. Yet in the wake of the attempted bombing by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, people all over the globe are already screaming that our current screening system isn’t working. But I’ll get back to that.

If you haven’t been keeping up, the above-named “terrorist” made it through airport security, apparently with no passport, with a bomb concealed in his genital area. Obviously it would seem someone dropped the ball here in a big way. But to be fair, this guy couldn’t even detonate a simple bomb that “could”…..COULD have blown a hole in the airplane. Instead, he caught his shorts on fire. I’m sorry, but that just makes me laugh. It doesn’t forgive the apparent TSA slip-up, but obviously this guy was a french fry short of a Happy Meal. It’s comical.

What isn’t so funny is the avalanche of criticism following the event. I can’t tell you how disheartened I feel sometimes at the attitude of a large percentage of Americans. That being said, I think I should share my perspective on our current state of security. Obviously, I’m no security expert, but I am involved in providing emergency services to the general public.

To begin with, unless you are prepared to go through the security check-point naked and are further prepared to be allowed absolutely no luggage, there IS no fool-proof way to catch each and every person that poses a threat to our security. Every time you step on an airplane, or train, or ride the elevator to the top floor of a hi-rise considered a prime target, you’re taking a risk. Every time you attend a sporting event, a concert, or a political event….ditto. Run the numbers. Regardless of how capable the Department of Homeland Security is (or isn’t), there is positively no way whatsoever to guarantee we’ll catch every terrorist. I can assure you, there will be other attacks on and off our soil. Tweak the system any way you’d like. You still won’t catch them all. What you will eventually do is paralyze a nation that expects perfection. Funny, isn’t that what the terrorists want? Even if they fail, they win because we live in fear.

Which brings me to a similar point. Since the attacks of 9/11, I and people like me have been trained in a variety of new skills. Emergency responders all over the country have been trained to spot Weapons of Mass Destruction. There is a brand new nation-wide system of communication called NIMS which allegedly assures that everyone responding to a mass incident is on the same page. Homeland Security has been developed, revamped and revamped again. We spend billions and billions of dollars every year so that NEXT time something like the World Trade Center or a Hurricane Katrina leaves us in ruin, we’ll be more organized and expedient. Our response will be swift and efficient. It breaks my heart to tell you this, but if a disaster of that magnitude strikes again, regardless of all the training and the billions of dollars spent, it’s going to be organized chaos each and every time. Will it be better than 9/11? Sure. Probably. Is it going to be a colossal comedy of errors? You can bet on it. There are things going on logistically at a disaster such as that you can’t even fathom. On top of that, everyone wants to be in charge. OR….NO one wants to be in charge. Politicians are trying to run the show looking for sound bites. Local jurisdictions are immediately overwhelmed so the State steps in and then THEY are immediately overwhelmed. Shortly thereafter FEMA shows up and eventually, things start to achieve some sort of order. Firefighters and police will be trying to save citizens and save their own. Citizens will be trying to help. Trust me on this. It’ll be a nightmare.

I guess what frustrates me most about all this is our unrealistic desire for things to be perfect. People expect that there will never be another terrorist attack or that if there is, the response will be neat and orderly. Neither of those things could be further from reality. Yet since Christmas Day, we’ve already applied shot-gun solutions to a rifle problem. Now, while on a plane, you can’t use a blanket or pillow. You can’t reach into your overhead bin. You can’t use the bathroom the last hour of the flight. I’m sure all that stuff will be a big help. No terrorist in his right mind would ever go to the bathroom in the FIRST hour of the flight.

Remember the shoe bomber? One guy makes it on a plane with a “shoe bomb” and suddenly we’re all barefoot. Another guy has some liquid bomb thingamajig and now we can’t take a water bottle. And your tooth paste had better be in a tube less than 3 oz. in size. It’s all ridiculous, yet we do these little things that won’t help because it pacifies people.

Enough. If you want perfection, leave your shoes and bags at home, strap on a robe and show up at the airport naked. That’s obviously where we’re heading. The system we have IS working. It isn’t perfect, but no system is. It doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to improve. It just means we need to be reasonable. We’re never going to reach perfection.