Preparing for Terror

Thursday, 6 Apr, 2017

Thinking about the horrific gas attack in Syria, and wondering about anti-terrorism measures for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020.

I saw this article Surgeons to prepare for attacks during Tokyo Games online, and it made me think how incredibly hard security is in any city, much less in a gigantic spread out metro like Tokyo.

I was glad to see that some preparation is being done. Japan is a country with almost no guns in circulation, except for police, and a stabbing will make national news. We are simply not prepared for it, and we also know that Japan gov’t won’t ask, say, the US Military for assistance (remember the Fukushima situation?)

But, I feel there’s a balance, regarding counterterrorism. I am against even the idea of “extreme vetting” like this article describes; it goes too far. The result may be that people simply refuse to visit the US, or simply drop Facebook and Twitter altogether.

So if there is an incident at Tokyo 2020, will it be “keystone cops” as usual, or will Japan actually get its act together in time.