The cover story in the January/February Atlantic Monthly is piece of "future history" by Richard Clarke that sketches the next five years of the War on Terror. He does not paint a pretty picture. His worst-case scenario has a series of devastating attacks on America- suicide bombers, mass shootings, strikes with biological and nuclear weapons. After each assault, the economy sinks a little lower and we sacrifice a few more civil liberties.
Part of his nightmare scenario for future terrorist attacks is the deployment of suicide teams to suburban malls where they enact mega-Columbines. Being a good Beltway/Kennedy School-- type, he simply ignores any civilian response-- even in states like Texas and Virginia.
As Michael Bane notes:
One thing Clarke totally disregards is the deterent effect of an armed populace. Yeah, yeah...I can already hear liberals laughing. But let's take the Israeli experience, where armed civilians stopping terrorists' strikes has become almost commonplace.See further analysis here.
