Suicide
attacks have occurred in the United States and will almost certainly occur here
again.
The
highest profile suicide bomb attacks in the U.S. occurred on 9/11 when a small group
of terrorists used four jetliners as bombs to destroy New York's World Trade Center,
to damage the Pentagon, and in a failed attempt to strike at the Capitol or the
White House.
More
commonly, individuals in the U.S. opt for handguns, rifles, or shotguns instead
of bombs. The individual, who embarks on a shooting spree killing random
persons, is the American equivalent of the suicide bomber in some other
countries. Few, if any, of these shooters expect to survive the spree. If for
no other reason, easier access to weapons and to ammunition than to explosives
makes shooting sprees the preferred form of mass killing in this country.
No
nation with over 300 million residents, thousands of miles of borders, and
millions of potential targets (e.g., the U.S. has over 600,000 bridges each of
which is a potential target for a suicide bomber) can confidently expect to
prevent every potential mass murder.
Mentally
ill persons commit some of these attacks. More commonly, the suicide attacker
is a person who wants to destroy our community and our way of life. How should
we respond and how can we best prevent future attacks?
Police
needlessly killing the mentally deranged woman, Miriam Carey, who attempted to
drive her car onto the White House grounds earlier this month, reflects the
misguided militarization of the police and the mistaken belief that
overwhelming force is the best way to deter or end incidents.
Instead,
the best defense begins with people living courageously, prudentially, and
temperately. Succumbing to fear of attacks implicitly incites subsequent attacks
because the perpetrators anticipate achieving greater notoriety and results
than would otherwise happen.
Prudential
living entails taking effective defensive measures. For example, the two best
defenses against airplane hijacking are (1) passengers taking action against
hijackers, something that derailed the fourth 9/11 attack and that has
disrupted several subsequent attempted airplane hijackings and bombings and (2)
hardening cockpit doors. No other defensive measure, including air marshals and
airport screenings, is cost effective according to extensive risk analysis by Mueller
and Steward in Terror, Security, and Money: Balancing the Risks, Benefits,
and Costs of Homeland Security (New
York: Oxford University Press, 2011). The billions spent on air marshals and
airport screenings would have benefited the nation far more had we spent those
funds repairing our crumbling infrastructure.
Temperate living connotes recognizing that life is inherently
risky and that no amount of courage and no set of defensive measures,
regardless of how extensive they may be, can reduce the risk of suicide attacks
to zero. Over reacting
to suicide attacks cedes victory to the attacker; even if the authorities kill
the attacker, or the attacker commits suicide directly, the community, by over
reacting, provides an incentive for other misguided persons to emulate the attack.
A
combination of courage, prudence, and temperance represents the best prevention
against future suicide attacks, but is far from a guarantee that no such attacks
will occur.
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