"Soft Underbelly" article Follow-up

by jwright
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I have had the pleasure (at times) of being connected with an online political discussion group for several years starting in the mid-1990s. One of the participants, known to me as SaraSabra, is an Israeli female who splits her time between Florida and Israel. Currently she is over there but she keeps in constant touch with us via her email communications.
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In my previous article I suggested that she might have some comments. She certainly did, and I have posted them below with her permission. Enjoy.
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John, I have a few comments....(laughing) but of course you had to know that...
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What he's saying shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone on the list... and Israeli's are not uniquely qualified to anticipate when and where terror will erupt. It just comes... it's an evolutionary process whereby the "don't have's" for whatever reason that they don't have, decide to make their presence and whatever point they feel they have known to the perceived "haves". (One can subsitute meanies, imperialists, genocidal maniacs, modern-day Nazis, far-right fascists...whatever euphemism one wants to for the "have's" in this case, as we have seen done over and over again).
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I look at the situation as a "class struggle".....Ladyhkr (another female email poster) looks at it as a "status struggle"....Fundy (another female email poster) apparently looks at it as an "interrelated Muslim - over-populating (in comparison to the aborting euro-caucasion-christian populace) socio -economic discontented with their lot in life conspiracy to overtake the world that can only be brought to a halt under the leadership of Ron Paul" struggle that will, by the by, bankrupt us along the way, if it hasn't already...

Whatever it is...there is no question that the "powers that be" will continue to wage conventional wars...and the "powers that aren't" will continue to attack the "soft underbelly".

I was driving by where Grad rockets hit Beer Sheva yesterday, and thinking about the difference of when I was a kid here.
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When I was a kid...I'd hop on a bus, and if there was an unattended package...you immediately reacted...like in the article. But more than that...before you sat down, (anyplace, not just on a bus) you used your hand to "sweep the seat" to make sure that nothing was there that you might sit on/over...because they used to leave bombs that would detonate upon physical pressure. In America, people think nothing of sitting down on a public seat in an airport or someplace and putting their things on the seat next to them. In Israel....you never did that...you would pile the things up underneath you, between your legs, on your lap, etc....but if something was on the seat, or beneath it, it was suspicious...you didn't so much as raise the alarm automatically, but you "swept the seat" by instinct just in case, and if something was there....people weren't blind to it...but they reacted appropriately.
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Those were the days before suicide bombers...generations have now been born that don't even remember those types of threat, nowadays, you have to "sweep the surroundings"....you literally have to eyeball everyone around, PROFILE, if you will...and yes...you are looking for people that look suspicious: Nervous, sweating, overdressed, not making eye contact, talking to themselves or conversely.....in the zone of euphoria....as if they are already on their way to heaven, (which I think I'd find even more alarming).

I have faith in America. Americans are a remarkably resiliant country, with a "can do / kick ass" attitude. We've shown it in the past. We are a nation of un-pedigreed mutts...and I say that with the greatest of respect.
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Americans came to this country seeking a better life from the countries that they left, and at their core, beneath the soft, bloated, underbelly that we have developed from living a particularly easy life in comparison to most of the rest of the world....we have maintained a very healthy work ethic, a belief in a strong defense, a "don't tread on me" mentality, an appreciation and sypmathy for the underdog, all while still being a world leader in technological progress and economy.

We have balance in this country...it enables us to roll with the punches and still come out swinging when the time comes...

We have had to change some of our travel habits a bit.... We have had some of our liberties (from most of which we haven't felt any real interruptions to our lives) curtailed....
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Some of our tax dollars have been siphoned off to pay for new "security systems".... Big Deal. I really haven't felt any appreciable difference in my way of living in the USA, other than I am always sure to wear socks when flying commercial because I don't want to walk barefoot where millions of others do.
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I have always felt that it was only a matter of time before terrorism (as opposed to pervasive violent crime) became a real problem in this country.... And I think that it is probably well on it's way here.
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We've had salvos and shots across the bow. We've had Oklahoma City and 9-11....direct hits...
and I don't doubt that we will have more. I also don't doubt that we will be able to adjust and adapt to the attacks.
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But.... PROFILING....will have to become a part of our strategy against this.
And in this case, the ACLU be damned. Pertinent questions will have to be addressed and the world of political correctness might have to be sacrificed on occasion when the question of the "greater good" is at hand.
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Laws CAN and SHOULD be enacted so that the abuse of this does not occur...for instance....if crimes are detected un-related to national security, by routine national security profiling, they might not be acted upon. I'm not a legal mind to determine the ins and outs of this...BUT....it seems to me that there has to be more security involved, and that those that will cry "abuse of power" can relax a bit if there are some legal adjustments.

As for the issue of attacking where the crowds are...well... I think that's a given. it's sort of ingrained in me at this point to try and avoid huge crowds to optimize my comfort zone...and yet, there are times when i say, "to hell with it, fate is fate, and i'm going to enjoy myself and GO"....but I do know, that it is safer to get past the checkpoints in place when in airports, cruise embarkations, etc.... Just a few years ago, some whacko in LA attacked the exterior check-in area at the LA airport near the EL AL counter, because they know they can't get past. The same has happened in Frankfurt Germany and Rome Italy.

I'm sure I could go on, but I actually have to go out now....bringing some dinner to the hospital here for shabbat.
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Shalom all,
Sara