Yesterday was an example of a people who reacted in abject fear to a killing as though their anthill was attacked and they all rushed out to defend it.  Not only they, but their neighbors up and down the road were out on the streets looking for the killer who was eventually found hitchhiking away from the scene of his senseless murder of a Deputy, a temp guard hired to move prisoners from one place to another.

When you know most of the story, you can rationalize why the humans in this instance reacted like the their anthill was threatened and they boiled out onto the street and did all sorts of self-protective (unnecessary and counter-productive) activity just so they could feel more secure in trying to find the single perpetrator of a dastardly deed. Locking down the schools only amplified the fear.

There was no invasion.  Bombs were not raining down.  There were no foreign or domestic military units present.  Cuba was not attacking the U.S.  Iraq and Afghanistan did not send elite units of their armed forces to punish South Florida.  In fact, none of the northern states of the Union were attacking Florida for screwing up the election that caused us to be inflicted by G.W. Bush and his entourage.  What was happening for most of the morning in Broward County was a huge number of people and agencies getting into the act in trying to find one man who overpowered his guard, killed him and escaped.

The question is:  What if a real terrorist attack happened?  Would any of the activity described above have helped to protect the citizens of Broward County?  I think not.  In fact, what all the running around and adding layer on layer of response teams to those already in place helped not one bit.  If a real attack occurred, the mess would have doubled and redoubled making it impossible to solve the problem either of the one killer or an attack by enemies from – somewhere.

This was a good test of the security system developed to prevent another 9/11 although the consequences of rapid response groups would have really resembled the ants tumbling out of their hill AFTER the attack.  The prevention of such an attack seems to evade us and we have been lucky to have done something or just enough to deter determined Al Queda martyrs from trying it again – although some groups inspired by Al Queda have been active in Europe and the Far East.

Does anyone have the answer to the question:  What if a real terrorist attack happened?