The Next Attack?

At The Washington Monthly Stephen Flynn speculates about a possible target for a terrorist attack: Oil refineries. As with so many such speculative scenarios Flynn's is at times fantastical and certainly worst-case, but at the same time his pice reveals one of the real weaknesses with our anti-terrorism approach: We are in so many ways fighting the last war, as it were. Because of 9/11 Americans are willing to sacrifice all sorts of convenience prior to getting on an airlane despite the fact that the next major attempt at an attack is unlikely to come from the hijacking of planes. Ports, oil refineries, subways, stadia and arenas -- these are still vulnerable targets, and yet authorities seem to have responded modestly if at all to bolster security in meaningful ways at such venues.