Terrorism & Security

I am taking another online course on weapons of mass
destruction and terrorism. The topics that come up in that course pique my
interest and bleed over into my blog here. Every week in that course we must
read, summarize and respond to an article from a website (nti.org). One of the
articles a classmate of mine responded to this week was about the security
measures being taken by Great Britain to ensure the safety of the upcoming Olympic
games in London. The article explained how they are taking radical measures to
ensure athlete and patron safety within the Olympic village. It got me to
thinking. I remember after September 11th there was a lot of talk
about a return to normalcy. Rudy Guiliani was big on people living their normal
lives otherwise “the terrorists have won.” I thought about that quote when
thinking about the Olympic games. At what point do the security measures taken
actually become the terrorism. I realize that sounds like a completely
outlandish statement but allow me to try to explain. Terrorism is meant to
cause fear and a break in typical routines and lifestyle. Terrorists do this
through a extreme violent act. Security measures, especially when taken to the
extreme, do much the same thing as a terrorist act would. People in the
surrounding area have to break routine, they are subject to search and have to
change their lifestyle to accommodate the situation they are living in.
Ultimately, security measures can actually make people feel less secure because
where there is smoke there’s fire and subconsciously people wonder why such
extreme measures are being taken unless something foul is afoot. As such,
extreme security measures actually cause fear in much the same way terrorism
does. I am not advocating that we not put security measures in place I am
simply saying that the psychology of these measures and the effect they have on
the general population is an interesting topic for debate.