© 2015 Michael Swickard, Ph.D. "As
George Orwell pointed out, people sleep peacefully in their beds at night only
because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." Richard
Grenier
Worldwide terrorists intend to
create terror in our hearts with violence. Again we are only safe from
terrorists when rough people do violence on our behalf in neutralizing those of
evil intent.
The terrorist attacks we have seen
this year and especially in the last weeks have one message for Americans: soft
targets are attractive to people who wish to harm Americans. America like
Europe is full of soft targets. How can we harden our soft targets?
The definition of a soft target is a
place where the people do not have a robust active defense. Examples are public
schools and community areas. They are especially Gun Free Zones where citizens
are prohibited from having a gun for defense. A lack of defense is very
attractive to people who are going to break the law anyway.
To people who only have seconds to
live, the police will be there in minutes. The attackers assume being able to
shoot unarmed citizens is good. Occasionally attackers will strike and an
off-duty policeman will end the attack because he or she is armed which the
attacker did not know.
As I point out often to the
opponents of having citizens be allowed a robust defense, the very nature of
not having a defense is what motivates some attackers. It is not often that
attackers decide to shoot up a police station. That doesn't end well for the
attackers and they know it.
The hallmark of soft targets is that
none of the victims can shoot back. All they can do is ask for mercy as the terrorists
kill them. It does not seem terrorists are deep into mercy.
So terrorists seek soft targets
because it is far easier to achieve their goals. That doesn't preclude that
once in a while a high value target will have armed resistance. It means that
armed resistance is the only way that the terrorists can be defeated and the
helpless victims might survive.
The goal to defeat attackers who hit
soft targets is to not make the defense easily identifiable. When Sky Marshalls
were put on commercial airplanes incognito skyjackers did not know if the plane
had a defender and more importantly, if the skyjacker was going to get their
head blown off. That discouraged rational skyjackers.
That is the only real defense for
our soft targets: the defense must be such that people of ill intent cannot
spot the defense but they know it probably will be there and active. There is
not easy defense when attackers are very motivated. Having someone with a gun
standing there does not always work because the person showing a gun may be the
first one attacked.
But in the audience at the music
hall in Paris the attackers had no one opposing them until the police arrived
much too late to save many of the victims. If at the moment of attack the
terrorists were summarily shot by citizens, it might have saved many victims.
There is a great truth in a false
quote that is repeated often by historians of World War Two. Probably the best
military man of Japan, Admiral Isoroko Yamamoto studied at Harvard University
and was part of a delegation that visited the U. S. Naval War College. He spoke
English well.
A false Yamamoto quote often
repeated: "You cannot invade the mainland United State. There would be a
rifle behind every blade of grass." No, he didn't say it. But it is good
advice to terrorists. In America there might be a rifle behind every blade of
grass so leave us alone.
That will discourage or dispatch
attackers. It is only by an active robust defense can we have any hope of being
safe here in America.
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