Somebody brought up something in my sick and twisted comment about trains. But it got me thinking of something I considered a long time ago. We invest all this money and wasted effort for airport security, the TSA is now being implemented in train stations, bus stations, truck weigh stations and even shoping malls. Yet, if a terrorist really wanted to cause a lot of destruction without fear of getting caught. Couldn’t they just derail a train? We’re talking about thousands of track easily accessed, and pulling a spike would only require tools available at Lowes. Reminds me of when I was in Baltimore several years ago. A train carrying chlorine was passing through and derailed, shutting down the whole city. This happend in a tunnel, so it was easy to secure, but these trains go right through downtown of many cities. What about other hazardous material, including nuclear waste? Or a commuter train that at rush hour could easily have 1,000 people on it. Does this prove that terrorist are idiots, not serious, or is the threat exagerrated by the powers that be?
Most railroad property is securely protected, by “No Trepassing” signs. What, do you think terrorists can’t read?
I think they read just as well as people who go on shooting sprees in places that don’t allow guns like colleges and offices.
Please forward your concerns to your local Viper team or Fusion Center, thanks.
Either terrorist are REALLY stupid or they aren’t really trying to cause “Terror” or damage in the US.
The US is mostly “Soft targets”. Malls, gas stations, electrical lines, bridges, railways everything is mostly completely unguarded. It would take nothing to take out any of these things and seriously disrupt life in the US.
The fact that we spend gagillions of dollars harassing people in airports, yet you can walk right into a mall with 100X’s the people around at any given moment seems enlightening to me.
Look at Israel and places where other attacks have taken place. Car bombs on the street, hotels, trains etc etc has been the majority of them, not planes.
The only real way to “Secure” the US is to control “In and out” traffic…since anyone can pretty much come right across our southern and northern border I’m pretty sure we should probably be more concerned about that than another 9/11 type attack.
~Matt
My job requires that I man the Emergency Operations Center for our region during a disaster. So we attend meetings on a regular basis, and we get updates from the local fusion center. The last one I attended, the fusion center seemed concerned about the use of bath salts and K2 (fake weed) more than anything else. The chicks doing the presentation were hot though. So they couldn’t have talked about anything and get my attention.
Unfortunately any nut can find a way to cause damage anywhere. Just look at the latest murders in Belgium or what happened to Gifford. That said, we’ve always had nuts causing mayhem only now
we capture the mayhem on video and a billion people watch it.
Those incidents would never happen if every American embraced their moral responsibility to carry a gun at all times.
"The US is mostly “Soft targets”. "
And this is unlikely to change. That’s why the largest part of our anti-terrorism effort is focused outward. We focus on disrupting the command and control structures. We focus on disrupting their funding. We focus on keeping their attention elsewhere. We focus on collecting intel on possible plots.
We couldn’t possibly maintain 100% security over every possible target, so we narrow it down as best we can, and focus on the stuff that we think gives us the best bang for the buck.
The only terrorists in the US are the ones created, groomed and supplied by our own government. It is hard work to manufacture justification for the oppressive security state.
"The US is mostly “Soft targets”. "
And this is unlikely to change. That’s why the largest part of our anti-terrorism effort is focused outward. We focus on disrupting the command and control structures. We focus on disrupting their funding. We focus on keeping their attention elsewhere. We focus on collecting intel on possible plots.
We couldn’t possibly maintain 100% security over every possible target, so we narrow it down as best we can, and focus on the stuff that we think gives us the best bang for the buck.
Yet, so called anti-terrorism policy is leading more and more toward inward solutions–for example, us soil is a battleground.
Yes, yes, yes. Absolutely!!!
Either terrorist are REALLY stupid or they aren’t really trying to cause “Terror” or damage in the US.
~Matt
I keep telling my wife that. 3 guys, a couple dozen 5 gallon gas cans, 3 semi-automatic rifles, sidearms, a case of road flares, and a mini-van. Then tour the countryside lighting small towns on fire and shooting people. Lots more terror than crashing a plane into the Pentagon.
Look at how long the DC sniper guy was driving around without getting caught.
Give it time. It doesnt/wouldnt take much to shut us down
Your first mistake in this analysis is that you are thinking rationally and logically. Your second mistake is that you forgot that terrorism means big bucks for a lot of folks. War on Terror and War on Drugs = Huge Revenues!
In the end that is what it is really all about. There was an article a year or two ago in the post about the intelligence industry fighting the war on terror. According to the Washington Post
- Some 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies work on programs related to counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence in about 10,000 locations across the United States.
I included the link to the whole project.
In the end that is what it is really all about.
I’m not sure if that’s what it starts out about, but most certainly that’s what it ends up becoming about.
Anytime a program is started that has no clear cut goal or one that is simply impossible to achieve you can bet that they goal will indeed never be achieved. The war on drugs, war on terror, war on poverty, education (War on stupidity) all have unrealistic and mostly impossible goals.
These goals can easily be used to manipulate policy in a fashion to both extract funds from the public as well as limit public and individual freedoms. Even ignoring the fact that taking ones personal property is the largest possible infringement on freedom many of the above “Causes” end up sprouting many other limitations on freedom. Patriot act, various drug legislation, the list is long.
So while extracting money from the populous you can also control how the live their lives…so you can extract more money from them…so you can control them more…
Again, any system that needs a known outcome must be comprised of known variables. You can’t “Win the war on poverty” without controlling all the variables that cause poverty. That pretty much means controlling the economy in such a manner that poverty can not exist.
~Matt
I don’t disagree. My point however is that it makes little sense to me try and create this “Sphincter tight” security at an airport when some douchetard can rent a van and take out a shopping mall one heck of a lot easier.
It also makes little sense to remove individuals freedoms for no better reason than to create a false sense of security.
There is no way we can “Make America safe”, we can only thwart and protect the best we can. Personally I see many policies that cost more in terms of personal “violations” than what is gained for overall protection.
I mean honestly, if you’re a terrorist, one with half a brain which are the ones we should be worried about, are you even thinking about doing anything with a plane when 99.999999% of the rest of the country is little more than ducks in a barrel?
~Matt
What you said. Yes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Whether that was the intention from the beginnning that is what it becomes about. Our nation is run by individual who collude or are controlled by individuals and corporations who benefit by keeping the machine going and groing at an exponential rate.