Why We’ve Lost the War on Terror (part II)

Today I want to expand on the discussion I began about America’s counter terrorism approach. I want to spend some time thinking about the effectiveness of our policies, & land on what I consider (despite the billions of dollars we’re hemorrhaging monthly) to be the true cost of our approach.

We are currently engaged in a strategy that is most strongly underpinned by something we might call a “security theater” story. Measures are taken to make people FEEL safer, regardless of the real effectiveness of the approach. Here’s a question. A though experiment if you will. Pretend you have $10,000. Pretend you’re cracked in some fundamental way. Do you honestly believe that the Department of Homeland Security, or the FBI, or the NSA, or who-fucking-ever could actually prevent you from killing twenty or a hundred people if you’re willing to sacrifice your own life?

Here in Seattle we’ve just had a vivid reminder of how stone cold simple it is to assemble assault rifles, semi-automatic pistols, shotguns, & other tools of terrorist mayhem. Play the game in your head for a few minutes. My personal favorite involves the I90 floating bridge.

Shopping List
Semi-automatic rifle - $800 - $2,000
(I’d likely spring for one of the AK-47 knock offs. They’re not as accurate as some rifles, but they’re legendary for reliability. Plus the large capacity banana clips are easy to find).
Assault pistol - $800 - $1,500
(I’d go with a semi-automatic version of the classic 9mm Uzi & then buy all the 32 round magazines I could lay hands on. I’m thinking I could carry at least ten.)
Personal body armor - $500 - $1,000
(There are some excellent performance reviews as a result of troop fatalities in Iraq. The point isn’t to survive…just make it harder, hence longer, before they can take me out.)
Caltrops - $0 - $250
(You can buy car caltrops on ebay, or make them yourself. They’ve been in use for a very long time.)
Binoculars - $50 - $500
(I’d spend extra on flare resistant coated optics.)
Optional DIY napalm

If you’re wondering how easy it would be to dig up the goodies on my list, take a look at http://www.gunsamerica.com/ (I’m thinking mail order is the way to go if you’re brown & ESL).

Now that we have all the tools needed, you’ll need to cauterize your sense of right & wrong (or amp yourself up on a religious zealot trip). Pick an end of the bridge during rush hour (I’d go with the one closer to the city). If you check out the satellite pictures on Google you can see that there are some nice shrubs etc. for you to nestle into. Watch with the binocs until you see two relatively full buses are on the bridge at one time. Throw handfuls of caltrops onto the lanes entering the tunnel. Go to work with the AK-47. Given that the cars are only likely to be doing about 3 miles per hour it’ll be like shooting fish in a barrel. Once the tunnel has been fully blocked by immobilized vehicles throw as many one-gallon glass bottles of homemade napalm as you can onto the cars below (this doesn’t really serve a significant function other than to make it more dramatic for the news. Which is really what terror is all about). You could do something flashy like rappelling down (or you could do something simple like following the little ramp down to the side walk that runs along the side of the bridge). Unlimber the Uzi & start firing into the vehicles that are trapped in the traffic jam you’ve created on the bridge (well, I guess you didn’t create it. You just made it really, really bad). The individual cars aren’t really your targets. You just want to create chaos & make sure everyone keeps their head down. The buses are where you’re going to get the numbers you need to make it a significant attack. Keep trying to kill people until they kill you.

What’s the point of this exercise, other than demonstrating the fact I’ve spend too much time stuck in traffic, on buses, on I90 & I’m more than a little twisted? My point is that America is filled to the brim with soft targets. There isn’t a damn thing we can do about it if we intend to maintain our character as a nation. “Security Theater.” We’re spending great heaping buckets of money on things that make people FEEL more secure when they’re just as (marginally) exposed as they were before. The implications of this approach spin out in a couple of ways. First, it’s a really dumb way to spend limited funds (it’s not like we’re so flush with cash that we couldn’t come up with something constructive to do with a hundred billion dollars). Second, it props up the illusion that we can be secure. Which means that when the (inevitable) attack comes, it has the same risk of mass-stupidity-perhaps-we-should-go-to-war-&-can-I-vote-for-a-right-wing-freak-show response that we witnessed after 9/11.

The real threat to our security is bound up with something I call creeping totalitarianism. Or maybe the insidious sneaky expansion of the security state. We’ve all heard the stories. Homeland security officers trying to monitor internet use at a public library, investigating a Texas man because he paid off his credit card bill, locking down the funds for the San Francisco Bay Area Puppeteers Guild for months, arresting a vegan protester at a HoneyBaked Ham store who had the audacity to write down his license plant number after the officer had been taking video surveillance of the protest (you gotta be careful with those terrorist vegans), photographers all over the country (myself included) are harassed persistently by security personnel (some of them are even arrested) for taking pictures of public buildings, department stores, etc….

If you’re feeling even a little bit conspiracy minded…you should remember that Halliburton just received a very large contract to build “temporary detention centers” inside the US, they’re running “war games” with names like “Cyber Storm” to “test how it would respond” to devastating attacks over the Internet from “anti-globalization activists, underground hackers and bloggers.” How does it feel to be an enemy of the state?

My biggest concern is a mental process that was well documented by Phil Zimbardo in 1971. The Stanford Prison Experiment (http://www.prisonexp.org/) was a classic demonstration of the power of social situations to distort personal identities and long cherished values and morality as the student volunteers internalized situated identities in their roles as prisoners and guards. The planned two-week investigation into the psychology of prison life had to be ended prematurely after only six days because of the results were so nasty. In only a few days, the “guards” became sadistic and the “prisoners” became depressed and showed signs of extreme stress. These are the results when you’re talking about a bunch of Stanford college students. Tell someone they have the authority to do whatever they want to protect national security, & they’ll do whatever they want. Tell a citizen they have to give up their rights to be safe from terrorists, & they give up their rights. Spend too much time in those roles & you become inured to the loss of your liberty.

Take all of this in the context of the fact that the government is already making plans & running simulations for how they can shut down the people who’re independent minded enough to disagree with them & I don’t think you have to be a “black helicopter nut” to be very afraid.