We humans worry about a lot of stuff, don’t we? Did I leave the burner on when I left the house? Did I remember to pay the hydro bill? Do I have enough money in my change purse for a double-double (not a Double Dagger!) at Timmies? Ok, maybe not the last one so much the last one since everyone uses debit cards these days!
Thinking about terrorism is different though…
There are many subjects which are fun to ponder: vacations, dining out, seeing your grandkids take their first steps, you get my drift. Spending a lot of time reading, writing and thinking about terrorism is not in the same category though. And yet that is exactly what I have been doing for more than 20 years! – 15 at CSIS and 8 in ‘semi-retirement’ (6 books, including The Peaceable Kingdom, and counting).
Why would anyone want to do this?
Terrorism is real, of that there is no doubt. It happens not all the time in all places but it does happen too often for anyone’s liking. And it occurs, thankfully rarely, here in Canada which means we have to keep an eye on it. By ‘we’ I mean of course CSIS, the RCMP, DND and a few other agencies tasked with monitoring terrorists in our land and acting to disrupt them before they can act. The public writ large cannot ignore entirely however.
Which is where I come in
With 32 years total in Canadian intelligence and a continued passion for all things national security and public safety, I still read every day about terrorism and share my thoughts with anyone who is interested in the views of a former ‘practitioner’. I have never claimed to have the ‘answer’ to terrorism but I do have some ideas on what works and what doesn’t. This book is a good summary of those musings. I hope you buy it, read it and let me know what you thought about it.
This article was contributed by Double Dagger author Phil Gurski.
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