Weapons of Mass Destruction and the new Terrorism Custom Paper

1. analyze if the United States is prepared for a chemical weapons attack? biological weapon attack? radiological weapon attack? nuclear weapon attack? Why or why not?

The question of whether the United States is prepared for a chemical weapon, biological weapon, radiological or nuclear weapons attack can only be answered with a ambiguous yes, no, or maybe. The attack or type of attack is relevant to the answer, but additionally so is the location of the attack.

In order to determine if the United States is in fact prepared for the above attacks, the focus initially must begin with an overview of the preparedness cycle. You must first have a plan for each attack scenario, secondly you must have people and agencies that are organized, trained and equipped for the attack scenarios. These two previous steps must be then exercised, evaluated and areas identified for improvement must have a corrective action plan, which then goes back to the plan and the cycle starts over again.

The preparedness of the federal government, state government and local governments, private sector stakeholders and finally down to the individual citizen is debatable if you follow the preparedness cycles and risk management principles in the National Response Framework (NRF), National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP) and the National Incident Management System (NIMS). The fundamental issues come down to the localities having enough people, money and stuff in order to handle the incident; the unfortunate issue is that most have a need for all of the above.

The concern in regards to the question above that the location of the attack or incident will be the primary driver of preparedness also rings true. Large metropolitan areas such as Chicago, New York, Washington D.C. and Los Angeles have greater resources, more robust programs, receive larger sums of money, but are also faced with densely populated areas that would potentially magnify the effects of such an attack. These cities are population hubs, each have a dynamic aura associated with them as being known worldwide and are lucrative targets.

Those communities that are rural and rely on mutual aid agreements or the formulation of regional partnerships to handle the majority of the incidents that occur on a daily basis, receive smaller sums of money are less likely to be prepared for such an attack. But as the populations are sparser and less dense compared to their counterparts, the effects may be reduced or made even worse due to the lack of response capabilities and attack methods.

I believe that some individuals, organizations, agencies, localities and governmental levels are prepared to some degree for such an attack, but to state in general terms that the United States as a whole is prepared I would say no.

The target selections by terrorists thus far have been focused on Economics (World Trade Center), notable events (Boston Marathon), political targets and those that would provide the biggest media coverage to the world. Furthermore, terrorism presents a difficult problem when dealing with the general public or those who are considered far removed from past events.

The simple identification of domestic, international, trans-national, religious, extremists, anarchist, animal rights, and self-radicalized to name a few is a lot of information to digest especially when you consider that each group has a different agenda, capabilities, and desire for the focus of their attacks. The statement of being prepared for such an attack arises when the realization comes to the general population that these types groups are in every state across the country to one degree or another and no plan or level of preparedness will nor can address them all.