Now it’s a full-blown terrorist event, if we are to trust al Qaeda—or some digital shadow that claims to speak for it. (I don’t remotely buy the report that antivaxers blew up Houston.)
Troops have been dispatched nationally to secure some of the hundreds of chemical sites that could kill at least 100,000 Americans. We may be approaching that unthinkable number in Houston. One thing I want reminding me of 9/11 is a casualty estimate that drops sharply with each passing day. Houston’s is rising.
No one I know is convinced this is a terrorist act. Who cares what we think?
TV screeches scary stuff. There’s blather from people who hate us, nonsense from officials who were supposed to protect us, and doubletalk from chemical companies that blocked efforts to heighten our security after 9/11.
To agree that Houston was an act of terrorism would emphasize that the company failed to secure the site. To admit that Houston blew up by accident would prove the facility should never have been located there. Act of God, anyone? Maybe—so long as it’s someone else’s god.
Witnesses, of course, are all dead, surveillance cameras blown to bits. I can’t wait to see the Emergency Indestructible Surveillance Camera Control Bill that will undoubtedly be breathlessly introduced in Congress this morning.
How many pre-deceased corpses will they find during Houston’s house-to-house inspections? How many Katrina victims who wound up there are reeling from post-traumatic stress? I wish Houston’s survivors the very best air, security, medicine, and love our country can provide.