Terrorism Against the West - A Chain of Events

August 7, 1998 I was sitting at work, checking the news online when the news broke that two US embassies in Africa had been bombed by terrorists; one in Kenya and the other in Tanzania.
In January 1999, a US Government accountability review board report stated concerns over the "Inadequacy of resources to provide security against terrorist attacks ... and the relative low priority accorded security concerns throughout the US government ..."

The embassy bombings reminded me of the bombing of the US Marine Corps barracks in Beirut in 1983 when 241 Americans were killed by a suicide bomber who drove a truck carrying six tons of TNT into the barracks.

In October 1985, the cruise ship Achile Lauro was hijacked by Palestinian terrorists in the Mediterranean Sea. The hijackers demanded that 50 Palestinians be released from jail in Israel. They murdered an American tourist in his wheelchair and threw his body overboard.

On Dec 21 1988, a terrorist bomb exploded aboard Pan Am flight 103 above Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 243 passengers, 16 crew members and 11 people on the ground. One of the terrorists responsible for the bombing was later tried and imprisoned in Scotland, but later released on humanitarian grounds because his doctor thought he only had three months to live. He's still alive and living in Libya.

At the World Trade Center in New York City in 1993, terrorists exploded a truck bomb in the basement of the North Tower, killing six people and injuring 1,042.

On October 12, 2000, the US Navy warship, USS Cole was attacked while it was refueling in the port of Aden in Yemen. A small boat carrying suicide bombers and an estimated 1,000 pounds of high explosive approached the side of the ship and blew up, causing a huge gash in the hull, killing seventeen sailors and injuring 39 others.


On September 11, 2001, terrorists hijacked four US airliners and flew two of them into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon, and the fourth aircraft--thanks to the bravery of the passengers and crew, who fought back against the hijackers--into a field in Pennsylvania.

Madrid, Spain, March 11, 2004, in the worst terrorist attack in Spain's history, terrorists bombed four commuter rail lines into Madrid, killing 190 people and wounding 1800.

London, England, July 7, 2005, four terrorists blew up three London Underground trains and one bus, killing 52 civilians and wounding approximately 700 more.


On November 5, 2009, Nidal Malik Hasan, a US Army officer stationed at FT. Hood, Texas shot and killed 13 people and wounded 30 others. He survived being shot by a civilian police officer, who then arrested him. Today, a military court will determine whether to put the accused officer on trial.

Today, the civilian trial begins in New York City of a man accused of being involved in the bombings of the two American embassies in Africa. The judge has thrown out the prosecution's star witness.

I'm sure that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the West's support for the Pakistan government in it's efforts to neutralize the threat of terrorism from within its borders have all helped to reduce the threat of more terrorist attacks in the west. But it isn't enough. It seems to me that the average person in the street has not really woken up to the fact that there are no front lines and that this is not a conventional war. The only time the average person really thinks about terrorism is when they have to take their shoes off at the security checkpoint at the airport. That is not enough.

There are two important things to remember:
1. Everyone is a combatant.
2. Whatever methods and tactics prove successful overseas, sooner or later they will show up here in America.

Are we ready? Are we in Condition Yellow?