Curmudgeon's Corner

By The Skin of Our Teeth

Posted by Al Campbell on May 5, 2010

Political, Quality of Life, U.S.

We have escaped two recent terrorist incidents ‘by the skin of our teeth’ as an old saying holds.

Our officials would have us believe we are safe because they were on top of things, and yet the facts do not bear that line of logic out at all.

The SUV incident in New York was unsuccessful only because the bomb-maker didn’t get it right.  He had managed to gather the supplies without tripping any warning systems.  He had managed to park the vehicle in Times Square and he had managed to evade discovery.

The attempt on Christmas Day in the skies near Detroit was only unsuccessful because the device that man was wearing when he boarded the aircraft failed to ignite properly.

I understand why governments think they need to show bravado in such situations, but there is a certain reality involved.  We have only managed to avoid two potentially horrific incidents because of the ineptitude of the perpetrators or plain old ‘dumb luck’.  Neither of those reasons should give us any comfort at all.

I do not feel confident of the current Homeland Security Secretary.  Janet Napolitano shows that classic ‘deer-in-the-headlights’ look every time I see her.  She simply does not exude confidence.  She may be well-equipped for her position, but I don’t see any evidence of that to date.

While the current administration seemingly has chosen to focus on some as-yet-ill-defined internal terrorists who are disgruntled with their government, it has apparently lost sight of the externally-driven terror elements that still have us in their cross-hairs.  There may be internal groups or individuals that bear watching, but that does not negate the fact that we have to maintain our defenses against the classic external elements that would do us harm.

There is a time for politics, but the battle against terrorism isn’t part of any political equation.  We need to be able to have confidence in our anti-terror efforts…and, for the moment, I lack that feeling of confidence.

These two incidents simply focus on the reality that, but for happenstance, we would be in mourning as a nation since Christmas Day.

We had better get our act together, or we might well not be so fortunate next time.

And there will be a next time!