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NOTICE:
The International Emergency Management Society's Transportation Saftey and Security Workshop Janurary 28-29th 2003
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Institute for Crisis, Disaster, and
Risk Management
Crisis and Emergency Management
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NOTICE: The ICDRM's monthly emergency managment forum, held at the GWU |
| December 2002
Volume 3 - Number 3 |
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Links:
Current events
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Personal Perspectives on Terrorism
by Jack Smith
Terrorism is form of peace-time warfare – it affects military and civilian populations equally and without discrimination. However, terrorism is not an act in and of itself, but a state of terror inflicted upon its victims. While any disaster, crisis, or even criminal act strikes acute terror and trauma in the minds of men and women, terrorism creates a chronic state of fear using the constant, non-specific threat of acute acts. We, as a nation and as individuals, must develop innovative and creative ways to both defend ourselves against, and attack the source of, terrorism – the ‘old ways’ will not protect us any more. Humans have the ability to manage emotions and effectively deal with the acute trauma criminal acts or natural disasters bring: these incidents have a clear beginning and end. Terrorism, however, defies what humans rely on to cope with trauma normally. We can only deal with this chronic threat of terrorism in seemingly abnormal ways. Paranoid, we stop flying, we hide in our car while pumping gas, and we increase our suspicions of people we believe may pose us a threat. For example: Last summer, a ‘concerned citizen’ of Boston called 911 to report that two men were video taping the John Hancock Tower on a bright Saturday afternoon, one of the more frequently visited tourist spots in Boston. Shortly after September 11, passengers were afraid of, and the flight crew of an airplane refused boarding to, a man because of his nationality; a man who turned out to be a Secret Service officer on the Presidential Detail. Ironically, because of the inherent uncertainty of the threat of terrorism, we can never be confident that our paranoid behavior will protect us, simply because it is designed to be a surprise. Our government is probably the worst offender of duplicative services, waste, and inefficiencies. While the creation of the Department of Homeland Security will eliminate many operational inefficiencies, it will not protect us from ‘terror’. Terrorists’ success is based on their ad-hoc, entrepreneurial, and strategically disjointed organizational structure. Will creating another ‘department’ with continued beauracracy provide us the flexibility and freedom to overcome terrorism? I can almost hear the terrorists laughing from here. With the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, I fear more for the safety of America over the next 5 – 10 years. Any organization is at its weakest during the confusion of a major restructuring. Strife, personal power conflicts, and general confusion usually last long after the restructuring is finished – all issues that cloud individuals’ judgments and priorities. While I was not in Manhattan during the September 11 attacks, I worked in the World Financial Center for four of the eight years I lived in Manhattan. When I first visited ‘Ground Zero’ after the attacks in November, 2001, I was immediately shocked by the irony: All of downtown Manhattan was brighter than I had ever seen it before – no longer were streets and buildings darkened by the immense shadows of two 110 story buildings, as they had been for almost 30 years. If we are to see any light in such horrendous tragedy of September 11 and the continued threat of terrorism, it should be that we cannot take our freedom, our beliefs, and our values for granted. In the same light, however, we cannot let arrogance and the belief of ‘American superiority over all’ lull us into a sense of confidence, for there can be no confidence in a world with terrorism – just awareness and intelligence. While our freedom, our diversity in beliefs and values, and even form of government give us strength, they are the target’s bull’s-eye. |