The Wrong Preparations for a WMD Attack

It's time for politicians to stop promising 100% protection, and time for the public to stop expecting it.

The FBI’s Assistant Director in charge of the FBI’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate recently said that the chance of a WMD attack against the US  is 100%.   That should crystallize the fact that any security apparatus, in the end, is only an illusion of safety.  While common-sense measures can help deter some attacks, no measures, no matter how extreme,  can ever prevent 100% of all attacks.

This calls into question the draconian, even Orwellian, security measures and apparatus that the US has put into place over the past decade.  In the wake of 9/11, we have seen our privacy whittled away with the Patriot Act and the Total Information Awareness Database.  We have seen the rise of the TSA, with ever more invasive screenings which seem to treat all passengers as criminals, subjecting them to radiation, virtual strip searches, and groping of their most private parts (and even then, these measures are not enough to detect all contraband).  We have seen the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, an enormous and unwieldy conglomeration of new and previously existing agencies, at an equally enormous cost to the taxpayer.  

All of this inconvenience, expense, and even the sacrifice of some of our freedoms and civil protections, in exchange for... a 100% chance of a WMD attack.

The government has behaved as if the American public demands 100% no-fail protections at any cost, even the cost of our freedoms.  There are probably many such individuals, but I will wager that there are many, many more who value their freedom and dignity far more than a zero-risk environment.  We cannot even achieve a zero-risk environment in our daily lives.  Such an expectation is naive and unreasonable, and the government does the people no favors by coddling them, giving them false reassurances, and generally treating them like children.  

What the government owes its people is the truth as far as it is known, and for that, I applaud the FBI.  Now it is long overdue for the government to educate the public on what to expect, appropriate responses, and self-protection in the event of a WMD attack, which is 100% certain to occur.  Lack of information and lack of preparation - even if it is only the psychological preparation of understanding what is happening - leads to mass panic, and that greatly amplifies the effect of any attack.  Attempts to evacuate cities are inevitably chaotic and expose many more people to harm, than learning how to shelter in place.  

Terrorism is not special, and it is high time we start thinking of it as any other threat:  ordinary crime, hurricanes, blizzards, floods, tornadoes.  We are raised from childhood on how to avoid or mitigate these threats.  They are terrifying when they occur, and some people die; but most of us know how best to seek protection in those moments, and even inadequate protection greatly enhances survival rates.  A WMD attack should be no different in the public mind, or in government policy.

Copyright R.N. Phillips

Feb 2011