Taking a look at the disaster in New Orleans relative to the potential aftermath of the proverbial terrorist attack on our soil, what we find is frightening: a nation completely unprepared to handle a widespread, planned catastrophe. However, part of the problem is because we have the wrong idea as to what "preparedness" really means.
Make no mistake, the effects of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans are not only one of the worst natural disasters in American history, they are also a test of our entire nation's readiness for and response to the proverbial catastrophic terrorist event- an event we've all been conceptualizing in theory since September 2001. Thus far this week, we've all failed the test.
Other than having someone to blame, there is no discernable difference between what is occurring right now in the Gulf coast and what would occur if any terrorist group's ultimate goal were reached. Even worse, with a terrorist attack the scene playing out in New Orleans could very well be playing out in many major metropolitan areas simultaneously.
While there are a set of relatively simpler that this disaster has uncovered- issues such as preparedness, response times, and manpower- the overarching problems are cultural and psychological. When we begin to shed light on these more complex issues, we find an entire nation that is most likely nowhere near able to handle a real attack on our soil.
- PREPAREDNESS: THE SIMPLER STUFF, SHIRKED -
Lets take a look at the first part of the problem: preparedness. While the dictionary definition of the term may elicit a concept that is simple to achieve, provided that enough resources are thrown at it- preparedness is actually a little more complicated that we think. We- meaning the citizenry, and more so the government- are a nation that is chronically reactionary.
After September 11th, the overall movement in the security universe was supposed to be towards something more proactive. However, the proof is in the pudding. We're now aptly prepared to handle Middle-Eastern hijackers driving our planes into New York buildings (a reaction to past events), but we're not prepared to immediately curtail the rather predictable devastation from a hurricane, known to us a week in advance, hitting a city which exists mostly below sea level.
I can only hope that no terrorist group is having an "ah-ha" moment right now- realizing that they could take a few suicide bombers to all of our levies, knowing that not only are there very few security personnel watching over them, but that we wouldn't be able to fix them until it is far too late.
Preparedness, you see, doesn't just mean scrambling FBI agents when someone makes a bone-headed bomb joke at the airport. Preparedness means the ability to scramble thousands of security personnel- military, engineering, investigation, medical, and the like- to any location in the nation that may come under any creative terrorist incident within hours- not days or weeks. It means a known set of rules and procedures that, in the unfortunate event of some form of devastation, as few citizens as possible are affected to a life-threatening degree.
- OUR HIDDEN CULTURAL CANCER -
Issues of proactive response are actually the simple end of the problem here. The disaster in New Orleans has uncovered a much larger, more wide-ranging, and more dangerous issue regarding our culture and our psychology as a whole.
