Russians are not typically a people who take great pains to keep their opinions to themselves. However, when urges to articulate what America must do to prepare for an assault on her own schools, even the most vocal become strangely humble. They know what is at stake. “Security in schools should be a large system,” Special Forces commander Sergei Lisyuk says. “The first and most important part of the system must be the information and intelligence system.” …He is not unrealistic about the changes this would entail. “This would be a large deviation from how schools have historically viewed themselves and their mission,” he admits. “But if they do not adapt to the times, and recognize the threats they are now under, they may not have children to teach”…To keep their children safe in order to educate them, [schools] must take on – at least to some degree a tactical mindset.
We Americans are woefully under-informed and ill-prepared for a ruthless attack against our children, likely because we cannot fathom it. Giduck understands the threat like no other and conveys the seriousness and urgency with which we must face the facts:
The problem up until now is that to most Americans – despite all of the terror attacks on our fellow citizens, on our property, and despite 9/11 – the very notion of Islamist extremists coming here to kill us remains a distant and unrealistic thought. The average person does not get up every day and seriously contemplate that the bridge he is about to drive across on his way to work, or the office building he is about to walk into, the mall or restaurant she will have lunch in, the school or day-care her children will merrily clamor into that morning, may well be the target of a terrorist attack. Moreover, Americans have not been given the information needed – in the context required – to recognize this is not only a realistic and serious concern, but an inevitable one.
…Most of us are incapable of realistically appreciating that Beslan was little more than a dry run of operations [Islamists] intend to soon be running on American soil, against American targets, and American children.
Giduck has spoken with a number of security officials and administrators from different school districts and though they are aware of the threat, they know that what really needs to be done to prepare for a Beslan-type attack in America would never be tolerated by school boards or parents.
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