vincentclark dot com

I never mean to sound like an alarmist or a Republican when I say that it isn’t a question “if” we will be attacked, but “when.” I also like to add an other dimension to the question, “how” we will be attacked. In the early days of the George W Bush’s presidency the thought that four planes would be hijacked at one time was beyond compression for most people. The thought that if an organization was able to hijack four planes with in an hour of each other and then to have those planes being flown into landmark buildings was something we never really thought someone would do. People may have thought someone could do that, but really, did anyone think that someone would do something like that.
In the early days of the Clinton presidency the World Trade center was attacked. At the time nobody thought that terrorist would want to attack a couple of buildings in New York. It is only after all that we have been though do we now look at that attack and chalk it up to amateur hour, unless you knew any one of the six people that died in that attack.

One of the reasons that Bush’s administration was caught off guard is that they were securing the area in the event that someone would want to drive into the underground parking a van full of explosives in an attempt to bring the building crashing into its twin. Like the Generals and Politicians of France securing the nation against a ground attack shortly after world war one. Yes it was a good idea, but not as good if the enemy comes by air.

The point being, we are always preparing for the next attack as if it was a continuation of the last attack. In 20 or 30 centuries prior, that may have been a good strategy, but in the 20th and 21st century it has been met with disastrous results.

The next attack will not be by plane, it won’t be a car bomb, and I even doubt that anything will be blown up. I don’t think it will be chemical or biological either. I fear it will be something much worse. If our country keeps pissing off IT, getting people writen up or fired because your report was late, this is going to lead to some very dangerous weponds. We have digatized almost every aspect of our life, and have minimized the roll of the people that hold the keys to that kingdom. When this weakness is exploited we are all screwed.

The sollution seems simple, security, security, security. Beef up the digital security. Get the people that hold the keys to make it more secure. Impose ambitous deadlines and run a good ad campaign.

It won’t work.
They are not going to come by air.