Forgetting That Terrorists Terrorize

Joseph R. Biden was elected President of the United States of America and Kamala Harris the nation's Vice-President on November 3, 2020. In statehouses around the country, on December 15 electors met and made official the Biden-Harris victory. And famously late in the night of January 6 and into the early morning of January 7, Congress certified the triumph of Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris.

Therefore, all of the mainstream media- especially CNN and MSNBC- were correct when they told us definitively on November 6 that the election was over and decided   Yet, on January 20, as we do quadrennially on January 20, there will be a ton of money spent for an inauguration and related activities, thankfully curtailed this year because of the coronavirus (a last laugh for Donald Trump). Nonetheless, bread and circuses will be the order of the day and tens of millions of dollars spent to demonstrate visually what we all learned the first week of November, were reminded of the third week of December, and reminded again the first week of January..

Noting the increased security precautions for the January 20 event, former FBI Special Agent Brad Garrett tells ABC News

So my sense is, if we're going to have a conflict, a violent conflict, it's going to be in the outer perimeter between probably the DC police, maybe the Capitol Police, maybe the Park Police, depending on where it is. But it's not going to be the day, if you're a protestor, to try to do anything significant- nothing close, obviously, to last Wednesday.

It will be either nothing close to last Wednesday- or nothing at all.  And that is why this guy is right:

I’m no logistics guru and have no idea the ins and outs of how this works but kind of feel like these extra 5000 would have been better deployed 100 each to every state capitol building. https://t.co/VET5GvUG0x

— Danny Gold (@DGisSERIOUS) January 15, 2021

We have been boldly told for over a week now that the January 6 insurrectionists are "domestic terrorists" or more boldly told "terrorists." But if the threat posed by violent extremists is of a terrorist nature, the insurrectionists are far more likely to attack state capitols (or less likely, elsewhere) than the US Capitol.

That's the way it is with terrorists because they are intent on spreading fear, or terror. It's most effectively accomplished not by attacking lawmakers, believed to be malevolent, who are on the verge of certifying an election the perpetrators evidently believe was fraudulent.  They do so by attacking innocents, individuals or groups unrelated to the evil the terrorists perceive. And the attacks usually come where least expected.

Nevertheless, despite intelligence indicating that the capitals of all 50 states are vulnerable to attack on January 20, the federal government is pouring money into protecting the buildings and institutions in the capital city of Washington. Meanwhile, states have limited manpower and, even if they are not besieged and attacked, will be spending their limited revenues to protect their own buildings and citizens.

This is foolish if preventing terrorist attacks is the highest priority but an effective approach if perception is the highest priority. It's an effort to convince the world that we are, and remain, exceptional, whatever evidence of the past four years (and especially of the past year) indicates.

Share |