I would agree in the ideal sense that we are better prepared and vigilant now than we were prior to 9-11. My experience tells me that the reality of the situation makes it inevitable that something more will be done, something much worse than what we have yet seen, if for no other reason than by the mere fact that we can see the obvious holes and gaps in our coverage, by virtue of those same freedoms which we are allowed to govern our own affairs by. All too easily, I have been able to walk freely and unchallenged into schools, during lunch hour no less, right into the cafeteria, without even being challenged. Even if the challenge comes, it is going to be by one unarmed, unprepared person. Imagine a coordinated assault on all the schools in a given metropolitan area, carried out by a small number of suicide bombers, and multiply that by 10 or 12 cities, and you can see where we are so vulnerable and helpless.

Now I have trod where I did not want to go. Considering the level of security we are maintaining here, and the amount of effort being put into actively pursuing the bad guys, pressing all our intelligence and interdiction efforts possible, and yet daily we still have attacks, if we cannot back home even consider the plausibility of stopping illegal drugs from entering our borders, how then could anyone assume that much more harmful stuff is not being brought in, or as is the case with meth, that much more destructive material is not being produced in our own neighborhoods. We are in a police state here, and we cannot stop it.

I think the FBI and all the other agencies we have are doing the best they can hope for, but it will not stop people who are quite willing to die to kill others. Recognizing the threat is only the beginning, how do you stop them? The answer is you don't. Suicide bombers are driving into heavily armed soldiers here and killing the soldiers by the dozen, soldiers who are everywhere here, much better armed than any permit holding American citizen, (I don't recall seeing anyone driving around town in an Amtrack last time I was home), How will you stop the attacks that are sure to come? Discounting the suiciders, how do you stop 50 armed thugs from invading your home one day while you are at work and your wife and kids are busy cleaning house (that is how they do it here)?

It may be tranquil back home for now, but I don't see how it can stay that way for long. The likelihood that the bad guys are already there, already armed, and only awaiting the opportunity is very high, it is expectable.

There I went and did it. I didn't want to, but I guess I had to say something. Sorry. As with here, the terror of the thing is much worse than the reality. Statiscically, the losses incurred by insurgent attacks relative to the general population are quite low here. To have lost less than 3,000 Americans and less than 25,000 Iraqis so far, after two years of conflict, seems negligible compared to the conflicts of our past. Doubltess any losses incurred back home should something bad happen will seem considerably worse than they relatively would be, mainly because of the hype and the coverage. Still, it will bring a change to our lives, our perceptions. People will have to deal with the reality that we are not able to defend ourselves 100%, although we can do better than anyone else on the planet I think. How we use this new awareness will determine many things about our country, our society, our future. What I expect is that for many of us, we shall assume a greater level of accountability for our lives and our actions.

Believe me, I do not say this to be argumentative with anyone. I would like nothing more than to be proven totally amiss. My responses here are given solemnly, with the hope that maybe, through my experience here, some of you will think about the situation in ways you might not have otherwise considered, and be able to utilize that knowledge to your benefit and those for whom you care. There are Iraqis here, like my friend, who can and do function in this hostile environment with their eyes open and facing reality full on. I would have him be an example for us all, that far and away, the best survival tool we have in any situation is the endowment of intelligence, which encompasses knowledge, wisdom and reason. Is that not our mantra, our caveat, the purpose behind this entire forum? Whether it is terrorism, or finding ourselves off the beaten trail, or stuck in traffic on the way home, semper peratis.

Because "Chance favors the prepared mind".