By William Tucker
Matthew Levitt of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy wrote an interesting piece urging Americans to prepare for the next terrorist attack that succeeds. It is an unfortunate fact of life that terrorism is an ongoing phenomenon despite our best efforts at fighting overseas and hardening targets here at home. In spite of these efforts terrorists still seek to strike the U.S. homeland as occurred May 1st with the attempted bombing in Times Square. In that event it was not law enforcement or intelligence that disrupted the attack, but rather the incompetence of the would-be bomber. In other words the U.S. dodged a bullet.
When the next attack occurs and succeeds it is vital that life go on as soon as possible. This frequently occurs in the face of suicide bombers in Israel and the more recent attack on the Moscow subway system. The Moscow rail reopened the afternoon after the attack allowing people to go about their lives all the while dealing a psychological blow to the terrorists that launched the attack. Terrorists seek to disrupt as much as they aspire to kill and propagate their agenda. Moving back to a sense of normalcy removes the effectiveness of these weapons. This is not to say that periods of mourning should be ignored, but rather the U.S. needs to foster resiliency when facing a terrorist threat in a similar fashion that is seen following a natural disaster. We can’t stop every disaster, but we can certainly mitigate the effects.
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