Hezbollah In Paraguay And Civic Fail-Over

Fresh on the heels of the Albanian freelancers who planned a terror strike on Fort Dix we discover that Hezbollah is opening a branch office in the hinterlands of Paraguay.

It's a matter of globalization and co-branding. Anytime you've got a barely-functioning, economically-depressed, non-democratic nation state with a large population of radicalized Muslims you have the opportunity to recruit angry jihadists to your cause. It could be suburban New Jersey, it could be South America. Suddenly Al Qaeda looks comparatively like the Austro-Hungarian Empire: These new groups are not your father's decentralized terror networks.

The smartest minds are trying to understand this trend. Ed Cone thinks this intensely localized phenomenon will increase the likelihood of biological and infrastructure attacks from all kinds of groups - not just traditional Islamofacists but drug cartels and isolated cranks - Seung-Hui Cho writ large. But the proper response to these kinds of threats isn't more and more government agencies with new and broader powers. According to a former DOD counter terrorism specialist (quoted in the Cone article):

Technology is a key template. "We need more resilience at the community level," says Robb. "Backup systems and alternative sources of supply. A bird flu epidemic could mean six months with nobody in the office -- are you set up for that kind of remote work?"

His advice: simplify and plan to route around problems. "We focus on economies of scale and reward specialization, but there's not a control system complex enough to manage the whole global system. You can dampen the shocks by simplifying your processes and planning to switch around as needed."

More centralization of government power is a road to ruin, he says. "We need a more resilient approach, that allows for more community participation in security, and more connectivity." Special ops forces, cooperation, and rapid response to threats are all critical as well.

Community-mindedness, independence, and resilience as a way to circumvent threats to security? Can we handle it? Many Americans have been conditioned to bray for big-government assistance after every disaster. Relocation expenses, low-interest loans and a credit card from FEMA are just a few of the amenities that become possible when the citizenry is afflicted with impersonal trauma. And how will Democratic lawmakers stay in business without speaking up sanctimoniously on behalf of the aggrieved?

Can't we just bomb Paraguay into sticks instead?

Tags: Terrorism, Security, Paraguay