Posted on 10/13/2002 11:39:57 AM PDT by dennisw
Wars of Nerves By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Living in Montgomery County, Md., these days with a sniper on the loose is an unnerving experience. We've all gotten to know our police chief, Charles Moose, through his news conferences during the past two weeks of random shootings. We've also gotten to know our pizza deliveryman better. Last Monday night my wife ordered pizza from the California Pizza Kitchen. When the deliveryman arrived, I was in the living room watching President Bush address the nation about Iraq. As my wife paid the pizza guy, she remarked to him that the pizza smelled great, "but I don't think my husband will get up because he's watching the news conference."
"Oh," the deliveryman said, "has there been another shooting?"
No, no, no, my wife explained, my husband is watching the president speak about Iraq.
But who can blame the deliveryman for assuming that I must be watching a news conference about the shooter. If you had to drive around here at night, standing on people's doorsteps with your back to the street, all you'd be worried about would be the shooter, too. But he's hardly alone. There is something about these shootings that is touching deeper nerves in us all.
The fact that the president speaks only about Iraq, while his neighbors down the street speak only about the shooter, reinforces the sense that this administration is so obsessed with Saddam it has lost touch with the real anxieties of many Americans. Mr. Bush wants to rally the nation to impose gun control on Baghdad, but he won't lift a finger to impose gun control on Bethesda, six miles from the White House.
Personally, I'm glad Mr. Bush is focused on disarming Iraq's madman and tracing Iraq's Scud missiles and weapons of mass destruction. It's a worthy project. I just wish he were equally focused on disarming America's madmen, and supporting laws that would make it easier to trace their .223-caliber bullets and their weapons of individual destruction. A lot of us would like to see more weapons inspectors on the streets here, and in the gun shops here, not just in Baghdad.
What's also frightening about this shooter, with his high-powered rifle, is that he could be the first real domestic copycat of 9/11, in terms of technique. That is, this shooter doesn't seem to be a serial killer with a political agenda or the perverse lust to look into the eyes of his victims before he snuffs out their lives.
No, like Osama bin Laden, this shooter seems to get his thrills from seeing the fear in the eyes of the survivors — after he randomly kills his victims as if they were deer. And like bin Laden, this shooter is a loser who combines evil, cunning, technical prowess, a world stage and a willingness to kill everyday people doing everyday things to magnify that fear. By gunning down people pumping gas, mowing lawns and walking to school, the shooter is making America's capital area squirm. That's power. No wonder the note he apparently left said, "I am God."
And no wonder the Bethesda Gazette, which normally covers school board meetings, carried a big headline that I never thought I'd see in my local paper. It said, "In the Grip of Terror," and the article included little bios of all the people killed. It could have been The New York Times on 9/12: "A County Challenged."
Finally, whether or not this shooter is a twisted copycat, he is part of a larger post-9/11 trend. That trend is the steady erosion of our sense of security, our sense that while the world may be crazy, we can always crawl into our American cocoon, our sense that "over here" we are safe, even if "over there" dragons live.
Well, "over here" is starting to feel like "over there" way too much. Over there, they just shot up U.S. marines guarding Kuwaiti oil fields, but over here, when I filled my car with gas the other day, I ducked behind a pillar so no drive-by sniper could see me; others hide in their back seats. Over there, Saddam terrorizes his people, but over here, my kids are now experts in the fine distinctions between Code Blue and Code Red. Code Blue means they're locked in their public school building because a potential shooter is in the area, and Code Red means they are locked in their classroom because there may be a gunman in the building.
Frankly, I don't want to hear another word about Iraq right now. I want to hear that my president and my Congress are taking the real steps needed in this country — starting with sane gun control and sane economic policy — to stop this slide into over here becoming like over there.
Conditioning.
Who is the one that is out of touch? While this is certainly on the minds of most people in the DC metropolitan area and has created a lot of anxiety here, I am sure this is not on the top of the list for the rest of America. I am not saying this to minimize the heinousness of this scumbag(s) crimes, but to point out that the threat that Sadam poses is far greater to America as a whole than a serial killer could ever be. This is something that completely escapes this pinhead Tom Friedman. All one has to do is look at today's headlines about the bombings in Bali to see the disparity in the two threats posed. I wonder if he could contemplate the result of a similar attack on US soil, possibly using biological or chemical agents. This illustrates, not only his shortsightedness, but his typical, inside the beltway mentality where the world revolves around Washington due to the self-importance of those that revolve around Washington politics.
I speak to people from around the country on a daily basis and while they are certainly aware of the sniper attacks here, their concern is for the safety of those that live here, they are not afraid that they are next. I was simply amazed at the recent poll that said that people are more afraid of the sniper(s) than they are of terrorism. I wonder if that was a poll of DC metro residents or the nation as a whole? If it was indeed the nation as a whole, then we are in big trouble.
He then goes on to promote his gun-control agenda. By using the term "weapons inspectors" for domestic gun control implies a massive state run firearms confiscation program. His ideas are not only naive and misguided, but extremely dangerous. I would prefer to take my chances with this sniper(s) than a Gestapo-like police force going door to door confiscating firearms. In fact, IMHO, this illustrates that the government is really incapable of protecting each of us, despite what this idiot "journalist" believes. This person will be caught (hopefully very soon), but not because of all the great profilers, etc. but because some aware citizen will see or hear something that will lead to his capture. Just another reason to never let that communist rag in my house - ever.
Last Monday night my wife ordered pizza from the California Pizza Kitchen.
I'll bet the Friedmans have been having pizza delivered every night since the sniping started. Can't be too careful, you know. The delivery guy might get shot, but he's just a working-class stiff, so it wouldn't really count.
BTW - The best weapon is a FOCUSED MIND.
Um, excuse me. Sounds like THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN hasn't heard any words at all about Iraq... Maybe because he was watching a broadcast network station instead of the President's speech last week?
I suppose you plan to frighten snipers with a copy of your domestic economic plan?
Only the total confiscation of all long guns and pistols would make the present sniper-situation impossible and total confiscation is not only wrong-headed and unconstitutional but impossible in it's own right.
They'd never get mine, for example.
Excellent quote. Unfortunately, there a few ignorant fanatics posting on FR who seem to think that the Second Amendment is a call to anarchy.
That was the position of the Founding Fathers, the authors of the Bill of Rights, every Congress in history and every Supreme Court which ever visited the issue.
"But it is universally understood, it is a part of the history of the day, that the great revolution which established the constitution of the United States, was not effected without immense opposition. Serious fears were extensively entertained that those powers which the patriot statesmen, who then watched over the interests of our country, deemed essential to union, and to the attainment of those invaluable objects for which union was sought, might be exercised in a manner dangerous to liberty. In almost every convention by which the constitution was adopted, amendments to guard against the abuse of power were recommended. These amendments demanded security against the apprehended encroachments of the general government--not against those of the local governments." -- U.S. Supreme Court, Barron v. Baltimore, 7 Pet. 243 (1833)
I know, I know, you don't like facts.
Sourceless nonsense.
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