The Dimmed Lights of Paris
Our lighthearted sense of freedom has been overshadowed by the terrorist savagery of Paris. Eight men were not only able to kill 129 people and injure 350 more, but to perpetrate fear throughout the world. After following all of the media reports, I do not agree that theirs was a "sophisticated' plan. It may have been well coordinated, but the scariest part is that it was so unsophisticated. Anyone could have purchased and cooked the elements used for the explosive. Everyone can get the directions from the internet at any time. Automatic weapons such as AK-47's are easy to acquire with the big business of gun trafficking. Renting cars, quick stop assaults on restaurants, and mass gunning of a concert crowd do not require any sophisticated thinking. Rigging a suicide bomb to go off outside a soccer arena is easy. The most polished aspect of the attacks was the point blank shooting abilities of these barbarians, which I assume was the essence of their 'training' in Syria. The rest was indoctrination, which can happen on any country's soil or in any living room. As we have already seen throughout the free world, anyone can do this if they choose to.
Is it just our own hubris which has led us to believe we are safe in the civilized world? Movie theaters, college campuses, marathon races, newspapers, elementary schools, hotels, airplanes, office buildings, cars, restaurants, concerts, government buildings and embassies -- all have been targeted for one reason or another. Think of the carnage that Timothy McVay caused in Oklahoma City. One man and a truck full of fertilizer. Think of the deaths and injury two brothers in Boston caused with a couple of ordinary pressure cookers, various explosives, and two packpacks. My own son got into a car in an underground office parking lot in Washington, D.C. and was blown up by two car bombs, planted by his stepbrother to kill their father. The perpetrator was a college graduate who visited a public library and downloaded the directions. Why? Because he could. Because he wanted to. Were these people mentally ill? No. They may have harbored diagnostic personality disorders and depression, like a hundred million people, but they were not assessed as being "mentally ill."
I just read a book about the sinking of The Lusitania in 1915, an ocean sailing passenger ship traveling from New York to England, where 1200 civilians died after being torpedoed by the Germans. The most telling revelation was that the British truly believed that there existed a gentlemen's code prohibiting the attack of civilians during war. Now we have a war perpetrated by lone wolves or small, violent packs. There is no code. The world has changed. There is clinical detachment in killing fellow human beings - by torpedo, by drone, by nuclear warhead, and by an automatic weapon in the hands of one barbarian. The idea that we can prevent such attacks by bombing the Middle East, closing our borders, destroying the ephemeral 'ISIS' network, and increasing more surveillance of private citizens is ludicrous! This is stealth warfare and it only takes one man to wreak violent havoc on civilians, whenever and wherever. Sadly, this is the state of our global world. The fact that life is tenuous is a reality that always travels with us today.
Is it just our own hubris which has led us to believe we are safe in the civilized world? Movie theaters, college campuses, marathon races, newspapers, elementary schools, hotels, airplanes, office buildings, cars, restaurants, concerts, government buildings and embassies -- all have been targeted for one reason or another. Think of the carnage that Timothy McVay caused in Oklahoma City. One man and a truck full of fertilizer. Think of the deaths and injury two brothers in Boston caused with a couple of ordinary pressure cookers, various explosives, and two packpacks. My own son got into a car in an underground office parking lot in Washington, D.C. and was blown up by two car bombs, planted by his stepbrother to kill their father. The perpetrator was a college graduate who visited a public library and downloaded the directions. Why? Because he could. Because he wanted to. Were these people mentally ill? No. They may have harbored diagnostic personality disorders and depression, like a hundred million people, but they were not assessed as being "mentally ill."
I just read a book about the sinking of The Lusitania in 1915, an ocean sailing passenger ship traveling from New York to England, where 1200 civilians died after being torpedoed by the Germans. The most telling revelation was that the British truly believed that there existed a gentlemen's code prohibiting the attack of civilians during war. Now we have a war perpetrated by lone wolves or small, violent packs. There is no code. The world has changed. There is clinical detachment in killing fellow human beings - by torpedo, by drone, by nuclear warhead, and by an automatic weapon in the hands of one barbarian. The idea that we can prevent such attacks by bombing the Middle East, closing our borders, destroying the ephemeral 'ISIS' network, and increasing more surveillance of private citizens is ludicrous! This is stealth warfare and it only takes one man to wreak violent havoc on civilians, whenever and wherever. Sadly, this is the state of our global world. The fact that life is tenuous is a reality that always travels with us today.
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