Soft Targets

 

 

 

 

 

 

"All it will take is one time, one heinous act of barbarism, and we will all be at a different level..."

As I was stirring this morning, I flipped on the TV. The breaking news was taking place in Rhode Island. Someone sent a note to a local school district threatening to behead a child in a school surrounding. Three elementary schools are now being patrolled by armed cops. Some parents are keeping their kids at home. Needless to say, the entire state is on pins and needles.

Truthfully, the note was probably a prank done in the poorest of tastes. That is not how these bloodthirsty terrorists operate. They don't do notes. They don't do warnings. Then I started to think. When 9/11 happened, 20 terrorists used a low budget plot to almost cripple this great country. The stock market crashed for a couple of days, airline travel was grounded, and some of our liberties vanished overnight. It was a huge bang for a little buck.

Think of what would happen if this new group of terrorists did manage to sneak into a school and decapitate a child. It would shock the nation, shock the civilized world. Nobody would feel safe - anywhere. The same would be true if a terrorist with an automatic weapon or explosives opened up at a place of worship, a shopping mall, or sporting event. Again for terrorists, it would be a huge bang for a small buck.

I am convinced that this new group of terrorists, as well as the renamed Al Qaeda group, want to do harm to this country. They want to do harm to us all the way from spectacular as in 9/11, to attacking soft targets.

Retired Lieutenant General Thomas McInerney (USAF), has been on the news more than once in the past couple of weeks. I have watched him for years and I like and respect him. He is not only smart, but also cool, calm, and collected.

Like many retired flag officers, General McInerney maintains connections in the Pentagon and beyond. The usual cool demeanor of the General is not cool at all when describing the ISIL threat. He believes attacks are immanent. So immanent, we need to up our readiness level. Prior to the 9/11 anniversary, he thought our level should be raised to DEFCON 1.

What are we right now? DEFCON 5, Condition Green. All is cool - no problems, none what-so-ever. Even though the UK and Australia have raised their threat levels to Severe, we will show them! This bunch of "Jayvees" over in the Middle East are nothing for us to worry about!

The way we are handling the War on Terror is similar to the way we are handling Ebola. Whereas smart countries are halting flights coming in from certain areas in Africa, we are not. We will just take temperatures of some folks at five different airports upon arrival. Basically, we are nuts in the way we are addressing both the War on Terror as well as the War on Ebola.

All it will take is one. One time. One incident. One beheading. One incident at a crowded venue. Even though warning bells are going off, the spider senses are tingling, we are in Condition Green - all is well. WELL, WAKE UP AMERICA! We have slipped back into the pre-9/11 mentality. War is coming, disease in coming. We know what ISIL is capable of. We know what Ebola is capable of. We are prepared for neither.