Friday November 11, 2005

I've Been Thinking:

Amman was bombed by terrorists.
And New York hotels received beefed up security and police presence.

Why it was done is obvious.
But is beefing up security at New York hotels a deterrent to terror?
Not from the terror and security point of view.
But certainly from the psychological point of view of potential victims.

In New York, hotels are no more a target than sports stadiums or shopping malls or popular tourist sites or government offices or high profile international corporate headquarters. Actually hotels are at the bottom of the list.
But hotels represent tourism and business travel and those industries need to feel secure - no matter what the actual threat level is.
Protecting hotels makes people feel safer. Especially because the terrorists in Amman targeted American hotel chains.

And the reason the terrorists selected hotels in Jordan is exactly why they will not hit hotels in the United States.
In Jordan there are not that many possible Western targets to choose from.

There are far more and better choices for terrorist targets in NYC and in the USA.