Wednesday July 13, 2005

I've Been Thinking:

Coordinated bombings in London, England. A blast in Netanya, Israel.
Dare we compare the two terrorist attacks?
Yes, we must.

Any time innocents are targeted for death by Muslim extremists we must search for both similar and dissimilar patterns. Compare and contrast. It makes us smarter, more competent to fight this uphill battle against terrorists.
The ultimate end goal of the terrorist remains the same - annihilation of the West, it remains to us, the West, their intended victims, to complicate their means, to put obstacles in the way of their modus operandi.

Both in London and in Netanya, the bombers were young males, they were suicide bombers.

In Netanya, the bomber digressed from his original plan. He felt threatened, felt the eyes of security personnel trained upon him and hit the switch while still a distance away from his intended target. He murdered innocents, but fewer than he would have had he been inside, not outside, a busy shopping area.

In London, the eyes of security cameras were open and watching, but the terrorists went about their business as planned. The bombers have all been captured on tape, and must have known that they would be, but none of the four aborted their missions because they were being observed.

In the pursuit against terrorists, technology is crucial, but it is not nearly as menacing as the human factor.
There is no way to convince the Islamic extremist bent on mass murder to mend his or her ways. But we can derail terrorists along the way. And we do that by keeping a significant presence, obvious and sharp.