ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, July 28, 1996 TAG: 9607300127
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
THE BOMBING of the Olympic Games in Atlanta was, as President Clinton called it, an "evil act of terror." It also was a reminder that Americans' vulnerability to terrorism is a fact we must, to some extent, accept.
The act may prove the work of a deranged individual rather than an organized conspiracy. Prudent security measures still are in order. Also: a better-coordinated strategy for fighting terrorism in all its twisted forms.
Ultimately, though, Americans' vulnerability to such offenses can never be entirely eliminated. Even if we could erase it, we wouldn't want to.
In Saturday's early-morning hours, the horror story followed an all-too-familiar script: News people scrambling to their posts. Scenes of panic shown and reshown. Updated reports of casualties. Hastily organized news conferences. Official expressions of outrage. Investigators fanning out. Heightened security.
The ritual was all the more sickening coming so soon after the crash of TWA Flight 800, hitting the heart of a worldwide celebration of the Olympic spirit, and leaving little doubt that sometime, somewhere, similar scenes will be repeated.
Olympic officials' decision to go on with the games, though quickly reached, was correct. Whatever their stripe - whether they push political causes or paranoid grudges, or simply are insanely malevolent - terrorists don't merely yearn for attention and revenge. They hope to disrupt and intimidate. To postpone or call off the Olympics would have been to surrender to the murderer or murderers who assembled and set off the nail-packed pipe bomb that exploded in Centennial Park.
As it is, the games continue under a cloud, their spirit soured, the venues an armed encampment. Unlike the terrorist assault on Israeli athletes in the 1972 Munich games, Saturday's attack seemed more random, directed at tourists and locals out to enjoy the festivities.
That in itself is significant. With three times as many guards as athletes and an array of high-tech safeguards protecting people at the events, Atlanta boasts one of the biggest peacetime security operations in U.S. history. The bomb - a relatively unsophisticated device - hit at the most vulnerable point, a city park with freedom of movement.
Even so, security personnel are credited with finding the bag that contained the bomb. In starting to evacuate the area just before the explosion, they no doubt saved many lives.
Which reminds that, all the what-ifs notwithstanding, heightened security did - and can - help. In this light, Clinton's recent ordering of tougher security for America's airlines, following the death of 230 aboard TWA Flight 800, was responsible and wise. The inconvenience of tougher security for the rest of the Olympics this week also is appropriate.
However many security measures are in place, though, as Saturday's tragedy also reminds, there will always be vulnerable points. And, beyond tracking down and bringing to justice the foul sources of such outrages - as often as possible before rather than after the fact - there will always be limits on reasonable responses to irrational acts.
Freedom of movement in a democracy is essential. After the World Trade Center, Oklahoma City and now Centennial Park, few can question the need for a strategic assault on terrorism, foreign and domestic. The ultimate antidote, though, is the spread and strengthening of democracy.
We cannot let a bunch of lunatics destroy our liberties. Not only could we never achieve a risk-free world, we wouldn't want to live in one.
LENGTH: Medium: 67 linesby CNB