Americans Should Show A Little Spine

For years Americans have been more concerned for their safety then necessary, could be because we are a coddled bunch. Looking across the world we live in one of the safer and more secure nations, yet many Americans claim that they live in fear of being attacked. The weapons used in a recent attack on spectators at the Boston Marathon were common pressure cookers, they were armed with a detonator and filled with BB’s, nails and pellets. The explosions killed at least three people, including a eight year old boy and maimed and injured more than 170 others. The recent Boston Marathon bombing may in the end prove no more then a teenage boy and his misdirected older brother making a crude easy to assemble bomb and placing it and setting it off in a highly visible setting.

 As we delve further into the evidence we will get a better ideas of the motivation and their intent. One thing the incident has already proved is that if ever a country wanted to maximize and encourage people to copy a negative act for attention, America can optimized the opportunity. We have also shown that America has the ability to throw a large and massive amount of resources into an investigation. This event is conformation of our ability to mount what could be considered a crazy overreaction to an incident. It culminated into massive and rampant speculation, and drove people into a frenzy, as the media and others talked about possible sinister links with terrorist groups and an extended cell of conspirators. We should remember that to the rest of the world the life of an average American is no more special or important in the overriding scheme of things then a person from any other nation.

Americans should show a little spine both when it comes to the idea or threat of an attack. This is not to say it is not tragic, for it is, but those effected most are the families of those who die, and those who are injured, not the rest of us who view it all from across the miles. The attitude and acceptance that it will occasionally happen does not mean that we shouldn't take prudent efforts to limit and curtail such incidents. This should stop far short of taking away our freedoms. Efforts to protect our country and it's people has already proved to be very expensive, the budget of  the Homeland Security agency is massive. Our focus must be on the big picture, the plots and attacks that would have far reaching effects. Incidents like the Boston bombing are merely collateral damage when you think of the massive loss of life that can take place.

In an opinion piece written by Ted Koppel and printed in the WSJ on August 7th, titled;  "America's Chronic Overreaction To Terrorism" Kopple delves into terrorism over the last several decades and makes many good points. Some readers thought Koppel was acting as a mouth piece for Obama but in fact Obama is in no hurry to stop the NSA program. Kopple wrote; Terrorism, after all, is designed to produce overreaction. It is the means by which the weak induce the powerful to inflict damage upon themselves. At home, the U.S. has constructed an anti-terrorism enterprise so immense, so costly and so inexorably interwoven with the defense establishment, police and intelligence agencies, communications systems, and with social media, travel networks and their attendant security apparatus, that the idea of downsizing, let alone disbanding such a construct, is an exercise in futility.

Bottom-line, we live in a dangerous world, many terrorist attacks occur every day throughout the world.  We will always be vulnerable to people being killed in a senseless manner. The people carrying out such acts usually have motivations that form outside the mainstream and norms of society. The way we as a society react to and handle these situations, and deploy our assets, will help determine the future frequency of such events. But more important may be understanding and lessening the cultural motivations that cause them, this could prove very challenging. Many other countries seem to shake off these ugly incidents faster then America.

I choose not to live in fear and I feel that there is a limit to how much of my money should be used to protect me. I choose not to sacrifice either my freedom or privacy. Those of us who want programs that spy on us disbanded has created a bizarre alliance of the far left that often calls more government action and the less government libertarians. Personally I'm reminded of the saying that alludes to fear having a way of feeding on itself, "in the night even bushes become bears." Fear has become a big business as we always justify spending a little more, doing a little more, being a tad more cautious. In the future I propose we face these events with courage, a stiff upper lip, bravery and resolve. Pressing on, not wallowing in the carnage, but picking our selves up and putting it behind us as soon as possible.


Footnote; My apologies if you find this post offensive, or insensitive, sensitivity is not my strong suit, this post merely reflects my personal opinion. As always comments are welcome and I urge you to glance at the blog archives for other post you might find interesting.