Could the Ft. Hood Disaster Have Been Avoidedart three?
We closed out the first edition of this editorial (blog) by examining (and blaming) this damnable idea of political correctness for, at least, contributing to the Ft. Hood event. In this follow-up I have no intention of beating that horse any more. There will be additional writings that will address such issues as Relativism, and the associated mindsets, all of which are serving to undermine the morals of this nation., and if not stopped, will destroy its very existence.
Of ultimate importance in this writing is the absolute necessity that American citizens learn how to be alert to situations that may be some sort of attack. All noticed events may not be terrorism. Such things as personal attacks by predators, or any other event that may bring error?to a person demands attention, and appropriate response. Approaching conflicts with other cars, so forth and so on bear the same need for caution as . We must learn to live in a level of threat awareness that will allow us to spot, react, and escape any situation that may bring either hurt or death to ourselves or a family member.
By way of introduction, if your read the previous blog, youl note that I mentioned how a number of observant people had noticed the strange behavior of the terrorist, Hasan. These people were no doubt living at least a part of their lives in what might be called the Yellow Zone, which we will briefly consider here. This is the level of caution that we all should be living in. If they had been living in the White Zone (discussed below), they would have not even noticed these red flags. In the Ft. Hood situation, those living in this totally naware?zone were those individuals that had these red flags reported to them, yet ignored them. They bear partial blame for the murders!
There are five olor levels?associated with threat awareness. They are White, Yellow, Orange, Red and Black. Each level is associated with the presence of a every increasing threat level. White, being the lowest on the list, is the state where the most people live,Moncler Men Down Vests.
The first olor?to consider is, of course, white. White is the lowest level on the adder?of situational awareness modes. If youe living in this condition, youe unaware, not alert, and oblivious to what going on around you. If youe conducting your everyday activities in this mode, then youe a prime target for a predator. In fact, you are a prime target for a number of situations where disaster can take place. It can happen while driving, while walking, or while flying an airplane. This mental state might be characterized as aydreaming?or perhaps reoccupied?with other things not associated with your environment. They may be events that have already occurred (yesterdays bad day at work), or things that are planned for the future (vacation starts tomorrow). You can quickly spot the person who n the white.?A good place to find them is to observe people walking from their cars into a mall, or grocery store. Theyl often seem to be watching their feet. Their heads will be down, and they may even bump into you, should you get in their way. Theye totally unaware of what taking place in the NOW! And theye the potential victims. Predators know how to spot these asy marks,?and will often take advantage of this state, launching an attack of some sort.
This brings up another point worth mentioning. That what might be called the aw of Expectancy.?For many years I have worked as a flight instructor and check airman in business jets. This involves giving required recurrent training to pilots who fly corporate and charter jets. For flight after flight they run the various check lists, calling attention to various switch and control positions. For the most part, these switches and control positions are where they need to be. So for perhaps hundreds of times, they see the device exactly how it supposed to be. Then, for some reason, the switch is not in the proper position for flight. Or, perhaps the steering tiller wheel is not where it needs to be for landing. But theyl see it as they expect to see it! As a part of the pre-landing check list, they may call it as safe, when a closer look would reveal it to be unsafe. They were operating in a lower alertness mode (white), and could only see what they expected to see.
Suppose your riding a motorcycle, and are hit by a careless motorist. The motorist claims they didn see you, and theye probably telling the truth (as they see it). Theye seeing traffic around them as they expect to see it. They see the most normal movement around themther cars (and they can get so deep into the white mode that they often even miss that). But this careless and distracted driver doesn expect to see a motorcycle, so it mentally blocked out of their mind and vision. Generally, we don expect to be attacked. Therefore, when a threat presents itself, wel not only fail to see it, but should we sense that something is ut of place,?wel often refuse to accept the fact that all is not well. After all, it always some other person that gets car-jacked, or mugged, or sees the beginning of some terrorist activity.
Another example that may drive home the point of operating in the white mode involves doctors who fly airplanes. Now, this certainly doesn apply to all flying doctors, but there a point to be made here that may demonstrate a deeper understanding of what I trying to present to you.
There are certain airplanes that have come to be called octor killers.?It works something like this. A doctor gets his pilot certificate, and he then buys an airplane. He may initially buy a small two or four seater that easy to fly. But, because he can afford it, he soon may buy a igh performance?airplane. This one will have a larger motor, retractable gear, and fly much faster. That ok, except for one situation that often occurs. He may not get the additional training required for the safe operation of this airplane. Where he had used the smaller airplane as a tress reliever,?he now attempts to do the same with the larger, faster airplane. So, on a particular day, after losing a patient he tried so hard to save, and being under a great deal of stress,Moncler Down Vests, he goes out to the airport with the idea of using this high performance machine to help him handle the stress (he shoulde gone to the golf course). He distracted by the situation, perhaps causing him to miss critical items on the preflight. Or, due to this distraction, he may bypass the preflight altogether. As he takes off and climbs into the ild blue yonder,?his mind is dwelling on the past events. He flying in white mode! In his distracted mindset, he may miss some situation developing during the early stages of the flight. He finds himself flying behind the curve, not expecting any surprises. Then it happens! He may allow the plane to slow down too much during the climb. The plane suddenly stalls. The ultimate surprise had taken place, and he not prepared for it. In this stall configuration, he doesn have the skill to bring it out. Or, even if he has practiced stall recovery, due to his distracted state, the kill?to recover lies somewhere ahead of him. He has otten behind the curve? Had he been operating in the heightened level of awareness required, he might have been able to avoid the situation. But because the danger crept up on him, and surprised him, he can catch up to the situation quick enough to avoid disaster. He died while living in Condition White!?br />
From this bit of data, you should see that the person walking in this condition is not only unaware of some sort of impending ersonal?attack, but, for our subject here, would most certainly not notice any person fitting the description of a terrorist, or some person placing a device that could actually be a bomb. While hreat Awareness?focused on a person being aware of all possible personal attacks, in this article we will focus on a wider screen. That being activity that could, according to certain criteria, indicate a more devastating attack than personal.
Even though our focus is a bit different in this offering, I will relate the various levels of terrorist awareness to that same multi-tiered awareness lifestyle.
To Begin With, What Is Terrorism,moncler jackets outlet?
Seems like a rather weird question! You would think that, following 9-11, all Americans would have a good idea as to what constituted terrorism. However, it seems that such is not the case.
The FBI describes terrorism as the use of force or violence against persons or property in violation of the criminal laws of the United States for purposes of intimidation, coercion or ransom. Terrorists often use threats to create fear among the public, to try to convince citizens that their government is powerless to prevent terrorism,moncler jackets women, and to get immediate publicity for their causes. I believe an analysis of the attacks of 9-11 shows that the cowards who carried out this act had just such an agenda. We can discover this by merely considering the worldview of those of the same faith and purpose as were those (now dead, of course). (And now we want to give all sorts of American ights?to those about to be tried for this act. All that in a later article).
Although acts of terrorism that involve explosives are horrible (that was, in fact, the case in 9-11. The bombs just happened to be aircraft. I believe an even greater type of horror would involve biological and chemical weapons.
Biological agents are infectious microbes or toxins used to produce illness or death in people, animals or plants. They can be dispersed as aerosols or airborne particles. The terrorist may use biological agents to contaminate food or water because they are extremely difficult to detect. Chemical agents kill or incapacitate people, destroy livestock or ravage crops. One problem is that some chemical agents are odorless and tasteless and are difficult to detect. They can have an immediate effect (a few seconds to a few minutes) or a delayed effect (several hours to several days).
Where a terrorist attack involving explosives have immediate and devastating effects, the disaster of biological or chemical agents can have horrible effects for days and weekserhaps even years.
One point to consider! It may be that the terrorist who is attempting to contaminate some water supply or such might be more likely to attract attention that, say, one who merely sets a briefcase bomb down someplace, or who has a bomb strapped to his body. However, in either case, it will take the watchful eye of a citizen to catch him in the act.
Some Facts About Terrorism;
Of course, the act of terrorism that sticks out in all our minds is what happened on Sept. 11, 2001. It was literally a pivot point in the history of our nation, and of the entire world. But that was not the beginning of terrorism in our nation. Following is a list of events that were classed as terrorism that took place prior to 9-11. This is not a complete list, but it demonstrates that 9-11 was the culmination of plans that these Islamic devils had been formulated for years. Andou may rest assured that, just because there have been no additional attacks on American soil since 9/11, it is by no means over.
On February 29, 1993, a bombing in the parking garage of the World Trade Center resulted in the deaths of five people and thousands of injuries. This attack was supposed to accomplished what happened on 9/11. There was just not the degree of power available through the flying of airliners into the buildings.
At this writing, the Department of Defense estimates that as many as 26 nations may possess chemical agents and/or weapons and an additional 12 may be seeking to develop them.
Prior to 9/11 the largest number of terrorist strikes have occurred in the Western states and Puerto Rico. Attacks in Puerto Rico accounted for about 60 percent of all terrorist incidents between 1983 and 2000 that occurred on US territory.
The CIA reports that at least ten countries are believed to possess or be conducting research on biological agents for weaponization.
Again, I major on these two types of terrorists attack because I believe that this will be the next form of attack that will occur on US soil. The fear factor that is created by both chemical and biological weapons is, in my opinion, far greater that explosion. A bomb (even a dirty bomb) will touch only a rather small geographical area compared to that of either chemical or biological use.
Terrorism In The United States
Up until 9/11, most terrorists attacks in the U.S. have involved small extremist groups who use terrorism to achieve a designated objective. Local, State and Federal law enforcement officials monitored suspected terrorist groups and try to prevent or protect against a suspected attack.
A terrorist attack can take several forms, depending on the technological means available to the terrorist, the nature of the political issue motivated the attack, and the points of weakness of the terrorist target. To date, bombings have been the primary method. However, as we have mentioned, other options include chemical or biological agents. Indication is that these will become the weapon of choice in the near future. We must prepare for this so that we can protect ourselves and our families from this devastating form of warfare. But as we have just seen, other forms (small scale killing with one or two using hand weapons).
Prior to 9/11, terrorist incidents in this country have included bombings of the World Trade Center, the United States Capitol Building, and the Mobil Oil corporate headquarters in New York City. I believe we can rest assured that there is more to come. Will you be ready?
Required Level Of Awareness.
Earlier I introduced the typical level of awareness that virtually the entire population operates in. We called it the hite zone.?This is a level that no person should ever allow themselves to get trapped in, unless it is when they are in their home, resting in their recliner, watching TV. However, even that is getting more risky. Because of a number of events where a person responded to an unexpected knock on the door, then was shot to death when they answered, I have modified even how I live inside my own home. Some may say this is a tad paranoid. I wander if those who have been attacked in their own homes would agree with that,Moncler Jackets Mens? Point is, if there is an unexpected knock on my door, when I answer it I will have a weapon in my hand, and under drastic conditions will not hesitate to use it.
Now to the subject at hand.
Condition Yellow!
This is described as a general state of alertness,moncler down jackets, with no particular focal point. Youe scanning the area around you, aware of movement and any encroachment into your general area of awareness. This is the only state of alertness that one can learn to live in without becoming paranoid. You can afford to think you see a ugger behind every tree,?but you must be aware that one may be lurking there. This is the Yellow mode. In this mode, if a ugger?does moves into your area, youl be instantly aware, and react accordingly.
One example I read somewhere defines this state of awareness in a way I thought was good. It went something like this!
Youe on duty at a radar center somewhere in the Middle East. Youe not actually at war where you are, even though there some threat in your area. So you have your radar up and running 24 hours a day, making a continuous 360 degree sweep of the area. Suddenly, there a blip on your radar screen. You can tell by just looking at the small, greenish-yellow dot on the screen whether it a good thing or a bad thing, so you ask a fighter plane to intercept the blip and check it out. If it a commercial airliner a hundred miles off course, the fighter pilot will wave at it, and return to base. If it an enemy MIG headed toward your site, hel shoot it down. He won wave or shoot until he first determines whether the blip is friend or foe.
This is very similar to how you should operate your life at all times. For our purposes here, this is becoming more relevant anytime we are in public, or even involved in almost any activity where there may be a hint of danger should certain situations develop. When you leave your home to go to work, to the mall, to the park to jog, or whatever, you turn on your radar, and it continually sweeps the area around you for potential hazards. When something catches your attention, you assess it. If it not a threat, you dismiss it. If it is a threat, you move toward dealing with it. This may be avoidance of the area, a redirecting of your focus, or whatever. Point is, you redirect your attention to deal with the situation at hand. But if youe in the hite zone,?as wee mentioned, you may not even notice the impending problem until it too late to do anything about it.
Anything in your one of defense?that unusual, out of place, or out of context, is viewed as potentially dangerous, until you have had a chance to assess it. When your mental radar picks up a blip,Moncler Womens Down Jackets, you immediately escalate one level up the scale, to (that later).
As we begin to conduct our lives at a higher level of awareness, just what are we supposed to be watching for? In the book hreat Awareness,?we are looking specifically for those situation where we, personally, are about to enter into an area of danger. That may involve a car crash, motorcycle wreak, or some predator launching a person attack. However, in the subject we are discussing here, we must expand our awareness to persons who may be going to great extremes to not be noticed, and have no personal intentions toward us. The results of their actions may have horrible repercussions to thousands of people. How much more observant we must be in such possible situations.
What To Look For!
Following is a short list of what is recommended we look for in our attempt to spot terrorist activity;
1.Let suppose you are attending a football game. Let make it a pro game, say, at the new Dallas Cowboys arena. You notice a person nearby taking a lot of pictures. That in itself is certainly not unusual. But then you notice that he/she is not only taking a lot of photos of the structure, etc., but he is also taking pictures of the security cameras, locations of the security posts, and other access control procedures. Is that normal for a tourist? Absolutely not! Such activity should certainly bring you from the ellow Zone,?to our next zone?br />
Condition Orange!
This is a heightened state of awareness, with a specific point of focus. The total difference between Yellow and Orange is that youe now identified a possible conflict, and your entire focus is on that point. In this self defense realm, your focal point may be on a person who doing something that draws your attention to him. It might be such a seemingly benign thing as wearing a field jacket in August. Perhaps harmless in itself, but somewhat out of the norm. But in your new heightened awareness lifestyle, you notice things such as this. In addition, he standing by a light pole in the parking lot instead of going into the building, or getting into his car and leaving. Perhaps you noticed this person as you exited your car and walked across the parking lot into the grocery store. Then you noticed him several times while shopping, and he seems to be always glancing in your direction. Then, as you take your groceries back to your car, you notice him standing a couple of lanes over, again watching you. Now, his actions have your full attention, even as the blip on the radar screen has the full attention of the fighter pilot until an evaluation is made as to the depth of the threat. One of the most valuable assets to this type action is that, once the potential aggressor notices that youe aware of him, hel generally fade into the background, looking for a more unaware victim. In most cases, such a person is nothing more than a miserable coward.
There are a number of threat indicators that go together to determine the degree of danger. It may be the clothing (gang related), demeanor, actions, body language, etc. Here again, if youe living in the usual white zone, all these indicators take place below your attention level, and the predator will pick that up. If you are his target, you just may be history! And if he is a terrorist, you may have contributed to thousands of deaths.
When you move from Yellow to Orange, you focus your attention on the identified possible threat, and make your plan should the threat materialize, but you don totally take your attention off other possible threats (other persons or situations involved in the threat).
As you continue to observe (often having only seconds to make an evaluation), you move into the hat if mode. What if this person makes some sort of overt move toward you? What do you do,Moncler Coats Womens? In other words, you begin to formulate a plan of defense.
Once youe concluded that a threat is actually about to present itself, and youe played the hat if?game, you quickly escalate to the highest level of defensive action?br /> Let continue the list started above.
1. Any person showing an unusual interest in a structure,moncler coat, especially one that is of national interest, such as monuments, tall buildings, etc.
2. As indicated above, out of the norm interest in surveillance items such as cameras, guard posts, etc.
3. Taking movies or photos of escape doors, fire warning stations, guard stations, etc.
4. Stopping to take notes, or speak into a recorder while observing any of the above.
5. Drawing of diagrams while observing above listed points.
6. Using binoculars or night vision devices to observe high points on buildings, or structures in the near-by area to the structure of interest.
As you go about your everyday activities, it vital that you learn to be alert to certain unusual activities. Unusual activity in itself does not necessarily mean that terrorist activity is about to take place. But it is absolutely vital that we become suspicious of things that just do not seem to fit with the normal flow of action. Some that come to mind are;
1. People avoiding eye contact. Now, there are people that, for whatever reason, just seem to act as though they are guilty of something. They will turn away with there is the possibility of making eye contact with a stranger. They may even?br />
2. Depart quickly when they are seen or approached by a stranger. One must be extremely careful about approaching a person that you see acting strangely. Such could provoke an attack. However, for the terrorist, he is not interesting in responding to causal notice. Rather, he will attempt to fade into the shadows so he can continue his work without further notice. If he thinks his presence may have been compromised, he may just disappear and reschedule his activities for a later time.
3. Another thing to be alert to is people who seem to be ut of place?with their environment. Remember Maude in our opening story? She felt the young middle eastern man was ut of fit?for that location. That is what first drew her attention.
4. Another warning that has become much more concerning than would have been the case some years ago are strong and strange odors. In the past, should we have smelled such an odor, we may have just passed it off as a leaky sewer or such. In our world today, we cannot afford to be so unsuspicious. Everything that is ut of the norm?must at least draw our attention.
5. What about a box van that seems to be very overloaded? Especially if it is parked in front of a large building. It certainly may not be anything. In most cases, it will be totally innocent. But there is always that ne in a million?time when it is not innocent. It only takes that ne in a million?time to bring about unimaginable destruction and death, forever change our nation.
So, let suppose you have noticed someone, or something that is totally out of step with what seems to be normal. Every nerve in your body is standing on end. And, youe listening to the most important facet of your alert systemour ut instinct.?For the most part, we go through life paying very little attention to this vital nside security system.?Most of us can relate a number of events where if we had listened to that inner voice, things may have turned out different. In our present society, we just cannot ignore that voice, especially when we are seeing or hearing certain activity that just does not seem to fit with normal activity. Every thing about you tells you that the activity you see will result in some type of attack. It may not be a terrorist attack in the classical sense. It may only be a personal attack on some unsuspecting person. It may be a bank robbery, or an act of arson. Point is, you are convinced that something bad is about to be done by one person or persons to other person or parsons. Sohat do you do?
It is time to move from Orange to?br />
Condition Red!
From the military or law enforcement/self defense concept, condition Red means youe not only ready for a fight (or flight, if that the best option), (that was settled in Condition Orange), but the flight/fight is about to take place, if that what needed for you to protect yourself or another person. Youe analyzed the situation, identified a valid threat, made your plan of defense, and now that plan goes into action. However, if you have been operating in a high level of alertness, you may have been able to recognize the threat in time to avoid confrontation. Even if this isn possible, you must make every attempt to avoid being drawn into a situation where the defending of yourself is apt to take you into an area that is outside your training and ability. This is almost sure to end up with you in a bad situation. (This is one reason why I consider the Taser, or pepper spray unit to be the most effective defenses against a soft attack,Moncler Vests Womens. That means no firearm brought into play).
In many cases, even though youe moved through the color stages from Yellow, to Orange, to Red, the confrontation doesn come to full force. As has already been stated, research has shown that often when a potential attacker sees that youe aware of him, he, acting as the coward that he normally is, will back off and fade into the shadows. Youl see that this will often be the case when using this plan as a defensive tactic to keep you aware of a threatening situation before the actual danger presents itself, placing you in a life-threatening situation.
When you believe a threat is real, and youe escalated to Condition Red, you then are expecting an attack. Youe aware of a specific, pre-determined action on the part of one initiating a threat that will result in an immediate, positive, defensive reaction from you(remember that the best defensive action from a typical citizen is escape, not confrontation, For that to happen, there must be an element of time). This is how you achieve the reaction time necessary to win. And this holds true whether youe resisting an armed assault from an aggressor, or dodging an (unintentional) assault from an 80 year old grandmother in her 50 hut-mobile. In either case, your life is in danger, and youl respond directly proportional to your preplanning and training in dealing with such threats.
In effectively dealing with any sort of threat, the main enemy is reaction time. If youe not aware of your surroundings, and fail to see the developing threat, regardless of what form it may take, you may be overwhelmed, and unable to react quickly enough, or properly enough, to avoid disaster.
In our next article, we will look at legal and moral options should you spot a or sure?
dangerous action about to take place.
Thomas Turner, Wolfhunter
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