Could the Ft. Hood Disaster Have been Avoidedart three?

We closed out the very first edition of this editorial (weblog) by examining (and blaming) this damnable concept of political correctness for, a minimum of, contributing to the Ft. Hood occasion. In this follow-up I have no intention of beating that horse any much more. There will be additional writings which will address such problems as Relativism, and also the associated mindsets, all of that are serving to undermine the morals of this nation., and if not stopped, will destroy its very existence.

Of ultimate importance within this writing is the absolute necessity that American citizens learn how you can be alert to circumstances that may be some sort of attack. All noticed events may not be terrorism. Such things as personal attacks by predators, or any other occasion that might bring error?to an individual demands interest, and suitable response. Approaching conflicts with other vehicles, so forth and so on bear exactly the same need for caution as . We must learn to reside in a level of threat awareness that will allow us to spot, react, and escape any situation that might bring either hurt or death to ourselves or a family member.

By way of introduction, in case your read the prior blog, youl note that I mentioned how a number of observant individuals had noticed the strange behavior from the terrorist, Hasan. These individuals had been no doubt living a minimum of a part of their lives in what might be known as the Yellow Zone, which we'll briefly think about here. This really is the level of caution that we all ought to be living in. If they had been residing within the White Zone (discussed beneath), they would have not even noticed these red flags. In the Ft. Hood scenario, those residing within this totally naware?zone had been these people that had these red flags reported to them, yet ignored them. They bear partial blame for the murders!

You will find 5 olor levels?associated with threat awareness. They are White, Yellow, Orange, Red and Black. Each level is related with the presence of a every growing threat level. White, becoming the lowest on the list, will be the state where the most people reside.

The first olor?to think about is, obviously, white. White will be 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 about you. If youe conducting your daily activities within this mode, then youe a prime target for a predator. In reality, you are a prime target for a quantity of situations exactly where disaster can take place. It can happen whilst driving, whilst walking, or whilst flying an airplane. This psychological state may be characterized as aydreaming?or perhaps reoccupied?with other items not related together with your atmosphere. They might be occasions which have already occurred (yesterdays poor day at function), or things that are planned for the future (holiday begins tomorrow). You can rapidly spot the individual who n the white.?A great place to find them is to observe people walking from their vehicles into a mall, or grocery store. Theyl frequently appear to become watching their feet. Their heads will probably be down, and they might even bump into you, should you get in their way. Theye totally unaware of what taking place in the NOW! And theye the possible victims. Predators know how you can spot these asy marks,?and can often take advantage of this state, launching an attack of some sort.

This brings up an additional point worth mentioning. That what may be known as the aw of Expectancy.?For many years I have worked as a flight instructor and check airman in business jets. This involves giving needed recurrent coaching to pilots who fly corporate and charter jets. For flight after flight they run the various check lists, calling interest to various switch and control positions. For the most part, these switches and control positions are where they have to be. So for perhaps a huge selection of occasions, they see the device precisely how it supposed to become. Then, for some reason, the switch isn't within the proper position for flight. Or, perhaps the steering tiller wheel isn't where it requirements to become for landing. But theyl see it as they expect to determine it! As a part of the pre-landing check list, they may contact it as secure, when a closer look would reveal it to be unsafe. They were operating inside a reduce alertness mode (white), and could only see what they expected to determine.

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 visitors about them as they anticipate to see it. They see probably the most regular movement about themther vehicles (and they can get so deep in to the white mode that they frequently even miss that). But this careless and distracted driver doesn anticipate to see a motorcycle, so it mentally blocked out of their thoughts and vision. Generally, we don expect to be attacked. Consequently, whenever a threat presents itself, wel not only fail to see it, but should we sense that some thing is ut of location,?wel often refuse to accept the truth that all isn't nicely. Following all, it usually some other individual that gets car-jacked, or mugged, or sees the beginning of some terrorist activity.
An additional example that may drive house the point of operating within the white mode entails doctors who fly airplanes. Now, this certainly doesn apply to all flying physicians, but there a point to become made right here that may demonstrate a deeper understanding of what I attempting to present to you.

There are particular airplanes that have come to become called octor killers.?It functions some thing like this. A physician gets his pilot certificate, and he then buys an airplane. He might initially purchase a small two or 4 seater that simple to fly. But, simply because he can afford it, he soon may buy a igh performance?airplane. This one will possess a bigger motor, retractable gear, and fly much quicker. That ok, except for one situation that frequently occurs. He might not get the extra coaching needed for the secure operation of this airplane. Where he had utilized the smaller airplane as a tress reliever,?he now attempts to complete the same with the larger, quicker airplane. So, on a specific day, after losing a patient he attempted so difficult to conserve, and becoming below a great deal of stress, he goes out towards the airport with the idea of using this higher performance machine to assist him handle the stress (he shoulde gone to the golf course). He distracted from the situation, perhaps causing him to miss critical products on the preflight. Or, due to this distraction, he might bypass the preflight altogether. As he requires 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 might miss some situation creating 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 location, and he not ready for it. In this stall configuration, he doesn have the ability 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 degree of awareness required, he might happen to be in a position to avoid the situation. But because the danger crept up on him, and surprised him, he !
can catch as much as the scenario fast sufficient to prevent disaster. He died whilst living in Condition White!?br />
From this bit of information, you need to see that the individual walking in this condition isn't only unaware of some kind of impending ersonal?attack, but, for our topic here, would most definitely not discover any person fitting the description of a terrorist, or some person placing a device that could really be a bomb. While hreat Awareness?focused on a person being aware of all feasible personal attacks, in this article we will concentrate on a wider screen. That being activity that could, according to certain criteria, indicate a more devastating attack than individual.
Although our concentrate is really a bit different within this offering, I'll relate the various levels of terrorist awareness to that same multi-tiered awareness way of life.

To begin With, What's Terrorism?

Seems like a rather weird query! You'd think that, following 9-11, all Americans would have a great concept as to what constituted terrorism. Nevertheless, it appears 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 of america 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 stop terrorism, and to obtain instant publicity for their causes. I think an analysis from 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 these from the exact same faith and purpose as had been those (now dead, obviously). (And now we wish to give all sorts of American ights?to these about to be attempted for this act. All that in a later post).

Even though acts of terrorism that involve explosives are horrible (that was, in reality, the case in 9-11. The bombs just occurred to be aircraft. I think an even higher kind 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 simply because they are incredibly difficult to detect. Chemical agents kill or incapacitate people, destroy livestock or ravage crops. One issue is that some chemical agents are odorless and tasteless and are difficult to detect. They can have an immediate impact (a couple of seconds to a few minutes) or perhaps a delayed impact (a number of hours to several days).

Exactly 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.
1 point to think about! It might be that the terrorist who is attempting to contaminate some water provide or such might be much more likely to attract interest that, say, one who merely sets a briefcase bomb down someplace, or who features 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 Details About Terrorism;

Obviously, the act of terrorism that sticks out in all our minds is what happened on Sept. 11, 2001. It was literally a pivot point within the background of our nation, and from the entire globe. But that was not the starting of terrorism in our nation. Following is a list of occasions that were classed as terrorism that took location prior to 9-11. This isn't a total list, but it demonstrates that 9-11 was the culmination of plans that these Islamic devils had been formulated for years. Andou might rest assured that, just because there have been no extra attacks on American soil since 9/11, it's by no means over.

On February 29, 1993, a bombing within the parking garage of the Globe Trade Center resulted within the deaths of 5 people and thousands of injuries. This attack was supposed to accomplished what occurred on 9/11. There was just not the degree of energy available through the flying of airliners into the buildings.

At this writing, the Division of Defense estimates that as many as 26 nations might possess chemical agents and/or weapons and an additional 12 may be looking for to develop them.
Before 9/11 the biggest 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 in between 1983 and 2000 that occurred on US territory.

The CIA reports that a minimum of 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 think that this may be the following form of attack which will occur on US soil. The fear factor that is produced by each chemical and biological weapons is, in my opinion, far greater that explosion. A bomb (even a dirty bomb) will touch only a rather little geographical area in comparison to that of either chemical or biological use.

Terrorism Within the United states of america

Up until 9/11, most terrorists attacks within the U.S. have involved small extremist groups who use terrorism to attain a designated objective. Local, State and Federal law enforcement officials monitored suspected terrorist groups and try to stop or protect against a suspected attack.

A terrorist attack can take several types, based on the technological indicates available towards the terrorist, the nature of the political issue motivated the attack, and also the points of weakness of the terrorist target. To date, bombings have been the main technique. However, as we have mentioned, other choices include chemical or biological agents. Indication is that these will turn out to be the weapon of option within the near future. We should prepare for this to ensure that we are able to protect ourselves and our households from this devastating form of warfare. But as we have just noticed, other types (small scale killing with one or two using hand weapons).

Prior to 9/11, terrorist incidents in this nation have integrated bombings from the Globe Trade Center, the United states of america Capitol Developing, and the Mobil Oil corporate headquarters in New York City. I think we can rest assured that there's much more to come. Will you be prepared?
Required Level of Awareness.

Earlier I introduced the common degree of awareness that practically the entire population operates in. We known as it the hite zone.?This is a level that no person should ever allow themselves to obtain trapped in, unless it's when they are in their house, resting in their recliner, watching Television. Nevertheless, even that's obtaining more risky. Due to a number of occasions where a person responded to an unexpected knock on the door, then was shot to death when they answered, I've modified even how I live inside my own house. Some may say this really is a tad paranoid. I wander if those who've been attacked in their own houses would agree with that? Point is, if there's an unexpected knock on my door, when I answer it I'll possess a weapon in my hand, and below drastic circumstances won't hesitate to make use of it.
Now towards the topic at hand.

Condition Yellow!

This really is referred to as a common state of alertness, with no particular focal point. Youe scanning the area around you, aware of motion and any encroachment into your common area of awareness. This really is the only state of alertness that 1 can discover to live in with out becoming paranoid. You are able to afford to think you see a ugger behind every tree,?but you have to be conscious that one might be lurking there. This really is the Yellow mode. In this mode, if a ugger?does moves into your region, youl be immediately aware, and react accordingly.

1 instance I read somewhere defines this state of awareness in a way I thought was great. It went something like this!

Youe on duty at a radar center someplace in the Middle East. Youe not actually at war exactly where you're, even though there some threat in your area. So you have your radar up and running 24 hours a day, creating a continuous 360 degree sweep of the area. All of a sudden, there a blip in your radar screen. You can tell by just looking in the little, greenish-yellow dot on the screen whether or not it a good factor or a bad factor, 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 till he initial determines whether the blip is friend or foe.

This is extremely comparable to how you should operate your life at all times. For our purposes right here, this is becoming more relevant anytime we are in public, or perhaps involved in nearly any activity where there might be a hint of danger ought to particular circumstances create. When you leave your home to go to function, towards the mall, towards the park to jog, or whatever, you turn on your radar, and it continually sweeps the region around you for possible hazards. When some thing catches your interest, you assess it. If it not a threat, you dismiss it. If it is a threat, you move toward dealing with it. This might be avoidance from the region, a redirecting of one's concentrate, or whatever. Point is, you redirect your interest to cope with the scenario at hand. But if youe within the hite zone,?as wee talked about, you might not even discover the impending issue until it too late to complete something about it.

Anything in your 1 of defense?that unusual, out of place, or out of context, is viewed as potentially harmful, till you've had a chance to assess it. When your mental radar picks up a blip, you instantly escalate 1 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 become watching for? In the book hreat Awareness,?we are looking specifically for those scenario exactly where we, personally, are about to enter into an region of danger. That might involve a car crash, motorcycle wreak, or some predator launching an individual attack. However, in the subject we're discussing right here, we must expand our awareness to persons who might be going to excellent extremes to not be noticed, and have no personal intentions toward us. The results of their actions might have horrible repercussions to thousands of individuals. Just how much more observant we must be in such feasible circumstances.

What To Look For!
Following is really a short list of what is suggested we appear for in our attempt to spot terrorist activity;
1.Let suppose you are attending a football game. Let make it a pro game, say, in the new Dallas Cowboys arena. You notice an individual nearby taking a lot of photos. That in itself is definitely not uncommon. But then you definitely notice that he/she is not only taking a great deal of photos from the structure, and so on., but he is also taking photos of the safety cameras, places of the security posts, as well as other access manage procedures. Is the fact that normal for a tourist? Absolutely not! Such activity ought to definitely bring you from the ellow Zone,?to our subsequent zone?br />
Condition Orange!

This really is a heightened state of awareness, with a particular point of concentrate. The total distinction in between Yellow and Orange is the fact that youe now identified a feasible conflict, as well as your entire concentrate is on that point. In this self defense realm, your focal point might be on an individual who performing some thing that draws your attention to him. It might be such a seemingly benign factor as wearing a field jacket in August. Maybe harmless in itself, but somewhat out from the norm. But in your new heightened awareness lifestyle, you discover things like this. In addition, he standing by a light pole in the parking lot instead of going in to the developing, or getting into his vehicle and leaving. Perhaps you observed this individual as you exited your car and walked across the parking lot in to the grocery shop. Then you definitely observed him several times whilst buying, and he seems to become usually glancing inside your path. Then, as you take your groceries back for your vehicle, you discover him standing a couple of lanes over, once more watching you. Now, his actions have your full interest, even because the blip on the radar screen has the full interest from the fighter pilot until an evaluation is made as to the depth of the threat. Among the most valuable assets to this type action is the fact that, once the possible aggressor notices that youe conscious of him, hel usually fade into the background, searching to get a more unaware victim. In most cases, such a person is absolutely nothing more than a miserable coward.

There are numerous threat indicators that go with each other to determine the degree of danger. It might be the clothes (gang related), demeanor, actions, body language, etc. Here once more, if youe residing in the usual white zone, all these indicators happen below your attention level, and also the predator will pick that up. If you are his target, you just may be background! And if he is really a terrorist, you may have contributed to thousands of deaths.

Whenever you move from Yellow to Orange, you concentrate your interest on the identified feasible threat, and make your strategy should the threat materialize, but you don totally take your interest off other possible threats (other persons or situations involved in the threat).

As you continue to observe (often having only seconds to create an evaluation), you move in to the hat if mode. What if this person makes some sort of overt move toward you? What do you do? In other words, you start to formulate a strategy of defense.

As soon as youe concluded that a threat is actually about to present itself, and youe played the hat if?game, you rapidly escalate to the highest level of defensive action?br /> Let continue the list began above.

1. Any person showing an uncommon interest in a structure, particularly 1 that's of national interest, like monuments, tall buildings, and so on.

two. As indicated above, out from the norm interest in surveillance products such as cameras, guard posts, etc.

3. Taking movies or photos of escape doors, fire warning stations, guard stations, and so on.

four. Stopping to take notes, or speak into a recorder whilst observing any from the above.

five. Drawing of diagrams while observing above listed points.

6. Using binoculars or evening vision devices to observe high points on buildings, or structures in the near-by area towards the structure of interest.

As you go about your everyday activities, it vital that you learn to become alert to certain unusual activities. Uncommon activity in itself doesn't necessarily mean that terrorist activity is about to take place. However it is absolutely important that we turn out to be suspicious of items that just don't seem to fit using the regular flow of action. Some that come to mind are;

1. Individuals avoiding eye get in touch with. Now, there are people that, for whatever cause, just appear to act as although they are guilty of some thing. They'll turn away with there's the possibility of making eye get in touch with having a stranger. They may even?br />
2. Depart rapidly once they are noticed or approached by a stranger. One must be extremely careful about approaching a person which you see acting strangely. Such could provoke an attack. Nevertheless, for the terrorist, he is not fascinating in responding to causal discover. Rather, he will try to fade in to the shadows so he can continue his work with out additional notice. If he thinks his presence might have been compromised, he might just disappear and reschedule his activities to get a later time.

three. Another factor to become alert to is individuals who appear to become 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's what first drew her attention.

4. An additional warning which has become a lot more concerning than would have been the case some years ago are strong and unusual odors. In the previous, should we have smelled such an odor, we may have just passed it off as a leaky sewer or such. In our globe today, we cannot afford to be so unsuspicious. Every thing that is ut from the norm?must at least draw our interest.

five. What about a box van that seems to be very overloaded? Especially if it is parked in front of a sizable developing. It certainly may not be something. In most cases, it'll be totally innocent. But there's usually that ne in a million?time when it is not innocent. It only takes that ne inside a million?time to bring about unimaginable destruction and death, forever alter our nation.

So, let suppose you have noticed someone, or something that's totally out of step with what appears to be regular. Each and every nerve in your body is standing on finish. And, youe listening to the most important facet of your alert systemour ut instinct.?For the most component, we go through life paying very little attention to this important nside safety system.?The majority of us can relate a number of occasions exactly where if we had listened to that inner voice, items might have turned out different. In our present society, we just cannot ignore that voice, particularly when we are seeing or hearing certain activity that just doesn't appear to fit with normal activity. Every thing about you tells you that the activity you see will result in some type of attack. It might not be a terrorist attack in the classical sense. It might only be a individual attack on some unsuspecting individual. It may be a bank robbery, or an act of arson. Point is, you're convinced that something bad is about to be carried out by 1 person or persons to other person or parsons. Sohat do you do?

It's time to move from Orange to?br />
Condition Red!

From the military or law enforcement/self defense idea, situation Red means youe not just prepared to get a fight (or flight, if that the best option), (that was settled in Condition Orange), however the flight/fight is about to happen, if that what needed for you to protect your self 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 higher level of alertness, you might have been in a position to recognize the threat in time to prevent confrontation. Even if this isn feasible, you must make each and every attempt to avoid becoming drawn into a scenario where the defending of your self is apt to take you into an region that's outdoors your training and capability. This really is nearly certain to end up with you inside a poor scenario. (This is one cause why I think about the Taser, or pepper spray unit to become the most effective defenses against a soft attack. That means no firearm brought into play).

In numerous instances, even though youe moved through the color stages from Yellow, to Orange, to Red, the confrontation doesn come to complete force. As has already been stated, study has shown that frequently when a potential attacker sees that youe aware of him, he, acting as the coward that he usually is, will back off and fade into the shadows. Youl see that this will frequently be the case when using this plan as a defensive tactic to keep you aware of a threatening scenario before the actual danger presents itself, placing you in a life-threatening scenario.

When you think a threat is genuine, and youe escalated to Situation Red, you then are expecting an attack. Youe aware of a particular, pre-determined action on the part of one initiating a threat that will result in an immediate, good, defensive reaction from you(remember that the best defensive action from a typical citizen is escape, not confrontation, For that to occur, there must be an element of time). This really 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 straight proportional for your preplanning and training in coping with such threats.

In successfully coping with any kind of threat, the main enemy is reaction time. If youe not aware of your surroundings, and fail to see the creating threat, regardless of what form it may take, you may be overwhelmed, and unable to react rapidly sufficient, or correctly sufficient, to avoid disaster.

In our next post, we will take a look at legal and moral choices ought to you spot a or sure?
harmful action about to happen.

Thomas Turner, Wolfhunter

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