Terror knows no holiday

"Any coward and throw a sucker punch"

I have always though the name "terrorism" was a misnomer. It should be called cowardism. It takes a special type of human being to hide in the shadows and unleash pain, destruction and sometimes death on unsuspecting, innocent people. Most terrorists (except for suicide bombers) have no skin in the game. They plant a bomb, leave the area, and detonate it remotely. They are worse than cowards.

Like many, I was angered yesterday. The same type of anger I felt on 9/11. How dare someone do this. I don't care if it was foreign, right wing, left wing, or whatever - how dare someone do this. My primal instincts are to lash out with all America's fury. If it was domestic, a quick and painful death. If it was foreign, find out the sponsor state and unleash hell. I know, we tried that in Afghanistan and all it did was bog us down for over a decade.

So what do we do? I suspect the security in Boston yesterday was high due to the crowd level and importance of the event. Yet, it still happened. As much as some of our leaders would love to leave "terror" in the past, it is still with us. So long as evil walks the land, terror will be with us. Every time America shows a "soft underbelly", it will be an invite for evil to strike. To me, terror and evil are twins. What happened at Sandy Hook could easily be called terror. It was not about guns. Boston was not about IEDs. Both were about evil.

Once our leaders accept the fact that evil has been with mankind since Cain and Able, we will understand evil better. The only way to counter evil is to understand, accept it exists, and prepare for it. Years ago I was on a two week training event in Northern Maine. I did not have an assignment prior to checking into the base. Once there, the Commanding Officer took me in his office and asked me to do something very strange. He wanted me to think like a terrorist and how I could take his communication station off the air. Back then the threat was Russian - today it could be anyone.

For over a week, I needed to think like a "bad guy" and not a "good guy". I had to come up with plausible, nightmare scenarios that would take a multi-million dollar base off the grid. In one week, I came up with quite a bit. I spent the rest of my time writing my report and then presenting it. For the CO and his staff, much of what I had in the report was jaw dropping. It was so easy, it was like falling off a log. 

The bottom line is this - if you want to let evil into your heart and guide your path, there are no boundaries. In Maine, I had to pretend I was evil to come up with terrible plans. It was all just an  act. However, if someone wants to spend some more time and use more imagination than I did, evil can easily rule the day. Any coward can throw a sucker punch...