morning lineup firegeezer on 30 Jul 2008 07:36 am
Morning Lineup - July 30
By now you have probably read the summary report from the Texas DPS (HERE) that exposes the systemic sloppiness that allowed the Governor’s Mansion arsonist to complete his attack. It can be summed up in one word: inexcusable. From the director of the department down to the troopers who were assigned to the security detail, there was a complete disregard for regulations, maintenance and performance.
Personally, I cannot understand the willingness of everybody involved to just abandon their responsibilities and “go through the motions” of performing their assigned tasks without really taking them seriously. And you see the results of that irresponsibility.
But before we throw stones at the troopers’ house, we’d better step out front and take a look at our own.
Immediately after the September 11 attacks by the barbarians within our own country, the Department of Homeland Security was created to set up a defense against internal threats to our established government and our civilization. Along with other precautions we were advised to take measures ourselves to lessen or eliminate avenues of future attacks. Key among these were a couple of simple directives, keep the engine bay doors closed when there are no station personnel in the area to monitor any intrusions, and to secure your ambulance when you are away from it.
And this lasted for how long? A week doesn’t go by that we don’t report here on some lunkhead who simply slipped into an unattended ambulance and drove off. And you can drive around anywhere and see fire stations left wide open while the crew is inside doing whatever. How soon we forget.
Just because it has been nearly seven years since that terrible event doesn’t mean that the threat from these religious fanatics is over. It’s not. While their plans to destroy our country have been altered due to our counter-attack in the Mid-east, they have not given up. They still have literally thousands of adherents salted throughout the U. S. standing by until the next order to attack comes in.
True, they are crazy, fanatical and irrational. But they are also patient and disciplined. They will gladly wait for years, if need be, to perform their weird acts of martyrdom and you can bet that choosing a time when our defenses have been left unmonitored will be part of it.
And don’t think that just because you aren’t near a major population center or government installation that you don’t have to be concerned. The randomness of their actions is part of their arsenal. And when the next attack occurs - and it will happen - they will not only be aiming to disable the fire and EMS protection for the major targets, but also outlying departments to prevent them from backfilling into the devastated areas. Nobody is automatically exempt from being targeted. Nobody.
Complacency is the barbarians’ best weapon and it is all of our responsibilities to not provide an opportunity for them. Homeland Security is meant to be more than just a cash cow that allows us to buy fancier fireboats and trailer-loads of nifty tools to be parked out back and forgotten.
So let’s get started by properly checking this equipment out. I see there is still a need for fresh coffee, so I’ll take care of it.
on 30 Jul 2008 at 10:06 am 1.Dal90 said …
That post started off good — I too can not understand people who get lazy or just go through the motions of the job. I just can’t get into the head of someone who doesn’t check the monitors or make the rounds.
However, a lot of the Homeland Security directives are nothing but “Security Theater.” They have no rational basis, just play to unfounded fears and an effort to make it appear we’re doing something.
>And when the next attack occurs - and it will
>happen - they will not only be aiming to disable
>the fire and EMS protection for the major
>targets, but also outlying departments to prevent
>them from backfilling into the devastated areas.
No, they won’t.
Not the Islamic terrorists.
Even very extensive and state sponsored operations haven’t historically and will not in the future. Whether we’re talking German saboteurs operating in the U.S. in WWI and II, or U.S. Office of Strategic Service operating with the resistance groups in occupied Europe, or more modern clandestine U.S., French, and other nation’s operations…there are far bigger fish to fry then “Oh, we really should take out some fire station 50 miles away so they can’t move up to help!”
If you have a scenario where there is sufficient personnel to carry out such tertiary level attacks, we’re far beyond what any terrorist group or foreign government can organize — we’re in a situation of civil war.
Security measures are important — to protect your own community’s assests and ability to respond to emergencies, not have some joker out joyriding with an Engine (happened two towns from me last week).
But let’s be honest with what the threats are, and reasonable in our judgement of who will target what, not paranoid about bogeymen.