By the end of this essay I will demonstrate why there is no relevance or value in not only conventional maritime forces but military forces period, when responding to a terrorist threat. I will do this by showing different possible scenarios of likely terrorist targets and how we as a "conventional military" become less than adequate.
Does anyone in the free world honestly think that a terrorist plot would include at home military establishments? What purpose would this serve to the terrorists themselves? There is no terror actually occurred by the general public. As a member of the military I expect to be in the line of danger, I did since the day I signed on the dotted line. If anyone thought other wise it would be like becoming a firefighter and thinking you would never have to go into a burning building.
Is it sad if a member of our military family dies in action? Of course it is horrible, but the day "said" member jotted their name on the line they knew what could happen. If a terrorist decided to hit one of our homeland bases what would he gain? A couple weeks in the news would be about it. As members of the military we have come to expect we are targets. Being the most likely target makes us probably the least likely. The terrorist gets no "terror" value from such an attack.
The extra people on gates, the extra training because of the "what if" factor, to me are not worth the money spent.
Now if an attack took place, where do you think it might take place to garner the most terror possible? What do "we" as citizens cherish most in our lives? In my opinion, these would include; our families and children, our money, our recreation, our entertainment and our needed things like water, and food.
Take Victoria, British Columbia for instance, if as a terrorist you wanted to kill a city, take out a cruise ship while it is docked in the city's harbor. Not only would that cause plenty of chaos but it would literally shut down the biggest industry on the island. The downward spiral of lost jobs, revenue and life would be catastrophic as opposed to a terrorist hitting the navy base.
There are many ways for terrorists to hit us and unless our government is ready to keep armed posts at all our reservoirs, nuclear facilities, shopping malls, arenas, theaters and countless other places people gather in large groups the military will be left for only clean up I am afraid to say.
Everyday in "hot" countries like Afghanistan and Iraq "extremists" are willing to take their own lives at check points or convoys to "possibly" take out a few of us "infidels" from the west. But in doing this how much have they really accomplished. We are still in Afghanistan and the United States is still in Iraq. Are some people demonstrating and trying to get us to leave? Yes, some of our own countrymen are exercising their right of speech and demonstration for what they believe is a greater good.
We can all speculate on why we are there or what purpose does it have but as a soldier I follow orders and if I was sent to Afghanistan tomorrow I would do it, and do it honorably, just like the many members who are over there right now. Doing our country proud!
Back to the relevance of our forces response to a terrorist threat, the only way we can stop these terrorists is to get inside their groups. We need moles and spies, and I don't know and actually don't need to know if our government has actually accomplished this feet. That is a project that is way beyond my scope of need to know and if they are doing this almost impossible task the less people that know about it the better.
I do feel however that if on September 11th, Canada had been attacked as well as the USA then more people would be supporting us in our efforts to stop terrorism. The concept is new to the western world, prior to the egregious acts on that fateful day people of North America were complacent and trusting, which was a gross miscalculation on everyone's part. We should have seen the signs of what was to come. Hollywood did, there have been plenty of movies and TV dramas prior to even the first attack on the Trade Center. And how many times have "you" turned on the radio or television and heard about suicide bombings overseas just to shrug it off and not really even care? Well with the world getting smaller and smaller and global communication so easily on hand we should have know it was just a matter of time before the attacks started taking place on our own soil.
Our liberal immigration policies have been tantamount to allowing many persons in our country that should not be here. How is the military to respond to groups of bad people who have been planning for years when stopping these horrific acts is just so new to all of us? I am afraid to say it just can't be done.
In closing I believe the only thing left for a "conventional military" to do is to respond after the fact. Like I said before, unless the country is ready to be put in a state of military law, where we would have armed soldiers at every target terrorists could possibly attack the possibility of attacks are always going to be there. But as not only a member of our fine military but a citizen I am not prepared to go to that extreme. I refuse to live my life in fear, and to have such a presence at every possible target would most definitely cause fear in most citizens. Let's leave armed military presence to the countries overseas, we don't need it here and personally I don't want it here.
I enjoy living in our free society even with all the dangers that surround us everyday. I don't want our government to shut out our freedoms because of what "might" happen. It is sad that we live in such troubled times but we should also be thankful that we have such a great country. If something happens, then it happens no amount of military presence is going to stop people who are willing to die for a cause.
As a member of this fine military do I wish things were different and that we could find the answers to stop these "evil" people? Absolutely, but as long as there is different beliefs in this world we are always going to have war and conflict, hence why there are militaries in the first place. If I had a magic wand I would just make everyone love each other and there wouldn't have to be any armies or navies in this world but that is never going to happen.
Now I hope I never have to be witness to the horrors we have already seen these past few years but if more were to happen and my country asked me to go somewhere or do something about it, then I will be ready and willing. Whether it is to stand on a gate to give somewhat of a "presence" or it is to go to a foreign country to pull the roots of where this hate begins, whatever or wherever I am needed to do or go, I will be there!
I hope we have value and relevance in responding to a terrorist threat but unfortunately I just don't see how we can. Evil will be done regardless of what stands in the way of a committed person who is lost in what they believe to be right. One day I hope it changes and we can all respect one another as humans but until that day I stand ready as I can be for the wolf that growls at our door.