While listening to two political pundits bash the @#$% out of each other this morning on the topic of “enhanced interrogation" (waterboarding) and “are we (America) safer now under the Obama administration than we were under the Bush administration” I realized that I don’t think we have a consensus about how safe we want America to be . . . and what price we are willing to pay for that level of safety.
I also began to think of the responsibility of our elected officials, the ones we (s)elect or are selected by those we (s)elect and our security forces (which are all “opt in” organizations) and how those of us who are not a part of those groups are effected by their actions.
First, I began to wonder what is the "safety from terrorist threat" situation like in other countries i.e. how safe are other countries and what measures do they take to achieve their desired level of safety. It’s always easy to start with the extreme ends of the spectrum and work towards the middle and the first country that I thought of that is pretty safe from a terrorist threat was North Korea . . .
I tried to think of what country might be on the other end of the spectrum and is at continuous risk from terrorist threat and the first one I came up with was Israel . . .
I’ve never been to Israel but I have close friends who have and they corroborate the popular notion that security in Israel is tight. From what I understand their equivalent agency to the TSA makes the one in America look like a bunch of girl scouts. They have a CIA/Secret Service/FBI agency that is efficient and has a reputation that makes the whole Jack Bauer/24 thing look like . . . well, again, girl scouts.
It’s odd that I never hear of marketplace bombings in Pyongyang yet they happen with alarming frequency in Israel. Nobody really wants to invade North Korea but Israel is surrounded by folks who are ready to spill blood to get back the 8,000+ square miles (about the size of New Jersey) of land that has no natural resources and really isn’t that attractive (again, similar to New Jersey . . . .ooohhhhh!!!!!).
Of course part of that might be because that news of North Korea is heavily controlled by the state, the people are under constant scrutiny, the government is feared beyond measure and the ruler is a narcissistic despot with schizophrenic tendencies . . . or maybe they’ve just decided that to be safe from an outside threat they are willing to pay the price of personal liberty, moral conscience and any individual expression of freedom.
Israel on the other hand is also a country that takes their security and safety very seriously . . . but still suffers from the far too routine car bombing, suicide bombing and blood shed. But maybe Israel is a bad example to hold up to the light. I mean seriously dear readers, when your conflict with your neighbors is a key component of the Old Testament, the Torah and the Koran you’re pretty much screwed from the get go if you are looking for peace, quiet and a nice neighborhood to raise a family.
For the life of me I’m having trouble coming up with a developed country with massively porous borders and non existent security forces this side of some of the places I’ve visited in Africa - and some of those are a bureaucratic and process challenged nightmare that makes our DHS/INS look as smooth as Fed-Ex.
What can we (that would be those of you reading this who live in America) take from all this?
One thing might be that safety is an illusion, that safety is a transitory state of being and that safety comes with a price. That some of the price is paid by the men and women who “opt-in” to the armed forces and security forces of our country. That some of the price is also paid with having less freedom than more.
In the park behind our house, if the local police installed a hundred foot pole with six cameras covering a 360 degree area around the pole . . . I would be safer. I would also have less freedom. If there was border crossing at the county line from Dallas to Denton County and all who passed had to present proper credentials . . . I would be safer. I would also have less freedom. If the Coppell police (the suburb of Dallas were I live) detained and interrogated (enhanced version or regular) ever individual deemed suspicious that entered the town . . . I would be safer. However, those are not prices I am willing to pay.
Recently, the opinion has been voiced that a price has been paid by spending the moral currency of our country with enhanced interrogation tactics and the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay.
I can’t get my money back, but I can stop paying the price . . .
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