How safe are we today? Really safe?

"What did I learn from this rather unique assignment from decades ago? We are only as safe as our protection allows. If we are naive about bad guys trying to ruin a day, that is when they could strike. The question then remains - how safe are we today? Are we really safe? Or are we just naive? Interesting questions to ponder."

This sting that the FBI conducted to nab some real baddies who wanted to perpetrate a terror attack on the MMA fight by the White House a week or so ago, is a tale which might be only half told to date. Some things have been leaked out on the internet which might either be true or false. If they are false, it is typical for the internet to spin yarns instead of fact. However, if there is a modicum of truth in what has been leaked, we came very close to a real 9/11 type of Armageddon.

The FBI is trying to keep a tight lid on this thing, as according to rumors, there are still dozens of co-conspirators left to find and detain. But here is the thing which is the scariest to me - the aftermath of the drone attack. In other words, this group of treasonous anarchists were going to let loose with drones with explosives on them. Once the explosives started going off, besides the bedlam and carnage they would have caused, terrified people would have tried to escape into makeshift "killing fields". There, snipers would have tried to pick some of the guests off with long guns. Where is the world does ideas like this come from?

The old saying in the intel or law enforcement agencies still rings true today. We need to get it right 100% of the time, whereas the baddies only need to get it right just once. For the MMA event, we got it right again. If we had gotten it wrong, it would have been just like a 9/11 all over again.

But think about this just for a minute. This was a hard target. We were prepared for some kind of malice to occur. And yet with all that preparation, the plan came close to working. Most of us live in the land of soft targets. Schools, churches, community events. If somebody, or some group with evil malice in their hearts decides to take a run at a soft target, what is there to stop them. 

Years ago, as a young Lieutenant in the Navy Reserve, I did a two-week assignment up at a crypto base in northern Maine. I was asked to think like a terrorist and come up with as many ways possible to attack or dismantle the base. It is a very interesting assignment as I got to work with some local LEOs as well as some of the "alphabet agencies" who has assets in the area. The only problem I had with this assignment was keeping it short. Some of the possible ways to cause havoc never made it into my final report.

What did I learn from this rather unique assignment from decades ago? We are only as safe as our protection allows. If we are naive about bad guys trying to ruin a day, that is when they could strike. The question then remains - how safe are we today? Are we really safe? Or are we just naive? Interesting questions to ponder.