Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Abbott & Costello

Upon closer examination, there's a common thread that connects the last three foiled domestic terrorist plots, and I'm not just talking about the sheer buffoonery aspect to all of them. Don't get me wrong, it's possible that the Miami Seven, the Fort Lee gang, and the JFK pipeline crew intended to kill people, and in that regard there's nothing comical about them. Or rather, there wouldn't be anything comical about them if they weren't inept clowns.

But a clown is nothing without a straight man, and that's the common thread I'm talking about. None of these guys would have been capable of doing the slightest bit of damage without the help of the undercover FBI agents that were in the process of entrapping them. So as far as actual terrorist threats go, the good guys were light years ahead of the bad guys.

And that's really the difference between the real bad guys and the convenient bad guys. The real bad guys have been trained in paramilitary operations, and already have a network of other bad guys to help carry them out. So they're less likely to get tripped up by FBI agents posing as terrorist handlers.

What's also interesting is that the real bad guys seem to have a keener understanding of the symbolic significance of their targets than our own homegrown domestic terrorists do. I could think of at least a dozen targets that would resonate more deeply than the Sears Tower or JFK Airport before my first cup of coffee in the morning.

The problem is, so can the bad guys. The real ones, that is.

Posted by Judah in:  Global War On Terror   

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