AntiWar.Com
by Charles V. Pena

10/13/05

Ultimately, the recent security alert for the New York City subway system is a microcosm for the larger task of homeland security. And the lesson to be learned is best summed up by what the Irish Republican Army told the British after a failed assassination attempt against Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1984: 'Today we were unlucky, but remember, we only have to be lucky once -- you will have to be lucky always.' On 9/11, we were unlucky. Thankfully, we have been lucky since. But eventually our luck will run out .... The paradox of homeland security is that we must build defenses against terrorist attack, but defending against terrorism is a Maginot Line because a determined terrorist will eventually find ways to circumvent those defenses. And since it is unrealistic to believe that we can kill each and every al-Qaeda terrorist, this only accentuates the imperative to change U.S. foreign policy...

http://www.antiwar.com/pena/?articleid=7588


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp