Welcome, Iraqis! Everyone else, run!

IN THE NEWS
It has been an eventful couple of weeks. As I've been arguing in earlier postings, there's a common theme running through a lot of the stories--the 9/11 Commission report, the terror alert, the half-hearted and half-baked announcement of a new intelligence director, the barbs exchanged between presidential candidates about national security--is that we're really not all that prepared to spot terrorists. Sounding the klaxon in New York threatens to clog Ridge's famous "multiple streams of information" with false positives; a journalist seem to figure out how to handle the fact that she's sharing an airliner with a Syrian band; while all the attention is on swarthy al Qaeda types lurking around New York financial centers, the Democratic convention was apparently the target of "whiter than white" domestic terrorists, a danger largely unreported in the press.

Yesterday, I was being a bit light-hearted about the content-free www.ready.gov web site, which is supposed to help people lower the risk of terrorist attack, but instead gives advice that fits nearly any kind of disaster. Some useful tips might be in the vein of, How do I spot someone truly acting suspiciously, without stereotyping particular ethnic groups or turning into a hyper-anxious wreck?

In case you think I'm worrying about something relatively minor, I recommend that you read this news item about an Iraqi delegation, visiting the United States to learn what they could about civil rights, local politics, civil administration, and related matters. What they got in Memphis, unfortunately, was the bum's rush. The chair of the city council, Joe Brown (the honorable gentleman pictured to the right) refused them entry because, you know, all Middle Easterners are terrorists until proven otherwise.

Who's a terrorist casing the Prudential building, and who's just someone waiting for a cab? What's a suspicious parcel, and what isn't? What kinds of questions about a public building should set off alarm bells, and which are just bits of harmless curiosity? Whom do you call about your suspicions, and what should you say? Sadly, most Americans have no idea whatsoever. But they're told every day through "multiple streams" of information that they should be afraid, and vigilant, and be ready for something.

Comments

[Steven D]

Keep writing.

This is one of the best blogs on the net for analysis of foreign policy and military issues related to the "War on Terror."

[Kingdaddy]

Many thanks for the kind words. I'll definitely keep writing.

[ff14rmt]

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