SCARED TO CRY WOLF AGAIN

yesterday, the US State Department issued its latest warning, classified as a "Worldwide Caution", of a possible terrorist attack against US interests abroad. the warning said that it could not rule out the potential for al-qaida to attempt a second catastrophic attack within the US. the warning is fairly clear and lists basically every type of venue as a potential target. the warning is ominous in its scare level, as it states that the attack could include the use of nonconventional weapons such as chemical or biological agents. YIKES!

something new about the latest warning is that it was not followed by an increase in the "Terror Alert Level". previous warnings of this type, were accompanied by an increase to an 'orange' or heightened level of alert that would mobilize certain emergency agencies to increase staffing levels, security procedures at bridges and tunnels and heightened levels of checks at airports and seaports. i'll assume for the time being that those areas are being addressed in the proper way based on the state departments concerns.

what is a bit disturbing is that the government is trying to keep this warning "quiet" in order to save money, as the heightened alert status causes many state and local government agencies to have to spend extra money, and to keep the general public from altering plans to travel and go about there daily activities. if there is a potential for an attack, shouldn't we reconsider our plans?

on the second anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, we are almost ready to abandon one of the first systems put in place to prevent another attack from occuring. we all would like to forget what happened, but the reality is that the longer we go without an attack, the more likely one will happen. so to get lax with the alert level is just what we should not be doing.

i have said that the alert system is a bad idea and won't stop another attack or get the general public to behave differently. but, i think that if there is a system, we should use it. just because we have had 4 alert increases with no subsequent attack does not mean that we should not use it if it is still a viable system. if it isnt reliable, abandon it. we will never go below yellow alert and we will never go to red alert. so why not just be on alert until we ultimately win the war on terror. until then, all these alerts are useless.

the boy that cried wolf was soon ignored. for fear of that same consequence, abandon the alert system. then just tell us when the wolf is here.

have a grateful day!

larry