This article is useless PC pap. An armed citizenry trained and willing to defend itself against terrorists will end the scourge. B
<http://www.jewishworldreview.com/1208/ghitis_terror_lessons.php3?printer_fr iendly> http://www.jewishworldreview.com/1208/ghitis_terror_lessons.php3?printer_fri endly Dec. 4, 2008 / 7 Kislev 5769 Heed the security lessons of deadly siege By Frida Ghitis <http://jewishworldreview.com/op-art/terror_no_cure_cover.jpg> Advice from a former CNN correspondent, producer and unit manager who has worked in more than 50 countries http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | While Indian officials counted their dead and relatives of the Mumbai massacre victims came face to face with their life-changing sorrow, I headed for the airport in Israel at the end of a Middle East trip. Already, political and military strategists were discussing options in the wake of the killings. Several miles before I reached the airport I came to the first security check. While I spoke with an officer, a man holding a machine gun stood nearby. I then drove about 10 minutes to the terminal where security officers watched everyone entering the building (as they do in restaurants, malls and other public buildings in Israel). That came before the main airport security procedures. On an earlier leg of the trip, in Jordan, every time I entered a hotel I underwent security checks. Israel and Jordan learned prevention the hard way. In the 1970s, terrorists slaughtered 26 people in Israel's main airport. Thousands of Israelis died in other ''soft target'' attacks. In Jordan, terrorists blew themselves up in three upscale hotels, killing 60 in 2005. Terrorists teach us costly lessons, and we need to learn fast, because the recent bloodshed in Mumbai presages a dangerous future. The Mumbai operation was sophisticated and enormously successful by the twisted standards of terror. The truth, however, is that terrorism does not look particularly difficult, especially in open societies, where individuals are free to move around, congregate with whom they please and travel without restrictions. Let's not get overly impressed: Killing people, especially when you don't mind getting killed in the process, does not require great genius. MORE BRUTAL METHODS That makes stopping the killers more challenging - and more urgent than ever. Not long ago, terrorists sought mostly publicity. Now they exert enormous influence on the behavior of nations. Their methods have become far deadlier and much costlier for the entire world. As we knew they would, terrorists are going after the easiest of targets. While we clumsily and obediently remove our shoes at security lines, nobody checks entrances to crowded shopping malls, movie theaters or even airport check-in areas, where anyone can bring suitcases filled with anything. That's true almost everywhere in the world except Israel. The cost of securing every place on Earth is prohibitive, so governments must teach us all to identify suspicious objects and people. That's the front line. For longer-term protection, we must look at how to stop the proliferation of mind-poisoning ideas that fuel inhuman behavior horrifying vast majorities in all religions. We all know that most terrorist attacks are committed by Muslim extremists. Most attacks kill Muslim civilians. Muslims have started speaking out, saying that killing innocent civilians with the intention of sowing terror in the population is an affront to all religions, including Islam. Some, though, are afraid of fueling anti-Muslim sentiment; others go off track, charging that the actions of the West are just as reprehensible as those of jihadist extremists. You can argue against Western actions without excusing terrorism. Honest, rather than defensive, introspection about why terrorism has found a home in Islam might help find the answer. After all, terrorism is the world's problem, but it is also a Muslim problem. FEAR OF OFFENDING Fear of seeming anti-Muslim crippled security in India, as it does in other places. As Ed Husain wrote in London's Telegraph under the headline Tip-toeing round terrorists, that in Britain's main mosque, ''There are meetings every weekend of a group dedicated to creating an Islamist dictatorship, destroying Israel and which advocates Muslim supremacist views.'' Authorities ''and wider society,'' he complains, 'will not `interfere,' lest we cause 'offence.' '' This attitude hurts everyone. Terrorism once seemed a distant problem. No more. It has become everyone's problem. From a trendy restaurant in Mumbai to an airport near you, people who view murdering the innocent as glorious success already have changed our way of life. The lesson of Mumbai is that we must change much more if we stand a chance of denying terrorists ever more catastrophic victories. 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