If There Is No Terror, Is There Terrorism?

It's very impressive that Union Pacific has started so quickly rebuilding the trestle that fire destroyed last Thursday. According to a report I heard on TV, it is costing UP $1 million/day to have that track section out of commission, and so they are moving heaven and earth to get concrete pre-fab trestle sections in place to rebuild a new trestle, for about $38 million, by next month. It's like a war-footing!

Union Pacific has also offered a $2,500 reward for information about foul play that may have been involved in the suspiciously-rapid destruction of the trestle - peanuts, basically, considering the scale of the damage.

As far as I'm concerned, this is the sort of terrorism the Homeland Security folks were most-worried about after 9/11, because it was the most-likely: highly-disruptive activities aimed at causing economic hardship and provoking fear. And you can't say the arsonist(s), whomever they may prove to be, didn't try. The fire was set on that portion of the trestle parallel to the heavily-traveled, Business 80 Capitol City Freeway,where tens of thousands of people would have their most-unencumbered view as they passed over the American River on their ways home in the evening commute.

And yet, there is little sense of dread - in fact, no sense of it at all! Indeed, the sudden absence of train traffic has made commuting life quite a bit easier in downtown Sacramento. So, terror has its upside!

The key here, of course, is the absence of a (publicly-acknowledged) threat, and no deaths (maybe one injury from a firefighter, though). Terror is hard to foment if there aren't at least some deaths. That's one reason Iraq is such a frightening place now: combatants are going for maximum terroristic effect, killing indiscriminately....

So, was the railway trestle fire just the start of a crime spree in the Sacramento area by newbie terrorists flexing their capabilities? Maybe so! So, the stolid reaction of law enforcement and Union Pacific so far may lead the newbies to try again, for greater effect, perhaps this time tripping up. On the other hand, maybe that's the best way terror should always be addressed - just a cost of living in the modern world.

Move along, move along, nothing to gaze at here!