Reflection: Natl. Security

I think I'll take this time to just add some points that I didn't really get to elaborate on in class. The first is more or less about knowledge and perception of security, the second being why terrorist attacks provoke such strong responses from us, and the third being are we secure today?

1) The feeling of security that one has is directly related to the knowledge of the threats that a person has. Most people live in a blissful ignorance of most threats and you see this in how people really have not changed the way they live their life. They still use the subway, go to malls, and fly on planes. They have no knowledge of impending threats. On the other hand, the president of the United States or the station chief in Pakistan for the CIA has much more knowledge of the threats that face us and the possibility of attack. Therefore the measures they take to protect us may feel unnecessary and even ridiculous to the average citizen, but to those that have received intel indicating an increased threat level, the measures are very necessary. A personal example would be that my sister wanted to go to a party in a certain part of town. My father, a police officer, said no. She complained and he said it was a bad part of town and she said she never knew of anything bad happening to her friends that lived there. My dad said that there was plenty that had happened that she didn't know about. My sister did not have the knowledge of this intel and thought the protective measures were ridiculous. My father having arrested multiple people from this area in the last week for rape, assault, and battery knew better.

2) The next thing I will discuss is why terrorist attacks provoke such a strong response from us. I believe it is all about control and the fact that it is in external threat with intent to murder civilians. Al Qaeda has declared that it wishes Americans to die. Since we are all citizens this is a threat to us all. There is a feeling that there are actually people out there that want to kill us just because of our identity. That is very personal. When 9/11 happened there was such hatred and malcontent in these attacks that it became very personal. Also as opposed to many things such as car accidents, etc... those that die in these attacks had no control over it. In cases like car accidents it is assumed that people had some choice not to speed or not to go around the corner that fast, etc... Also that fact that it is an external threat seems particularly distressing to us. We have accepted to a certain extent that crime occurs in poor areas and we feel we can handle our own. But when it is a transnational movement, it seems like in invasion upon our identity and values.

3) Are we secure today? I think we are pretty secure today in that there is no immediate danger to most of our lives and livelihood. However people who are poor or in dire straits are not secure because their livelihood is threatened. Since the majority is doing well, the consensus becomes that we are mostly secure. I do think there is a thin line separating us from being secure and being in chaos. All it would take would be for the frequency of attacks to be as often as in Pakistan of Israel. We are not accustomed to living in hardship so there will be chaos. People will desperately try to maintain their way of life. In the end I believe the precautions and protections we are taking to preserve our way of life is worth it. Why should we concede to the terrorists and become used to a way of life that we accept terrorism as inevitable and the threat constant. We must always strive to have a better life or we will stop improving and go backwards in progress.