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HATTIESBURG
– Treating terrorists like they're 10 feet tall is the wrong
approach in preparing for more attacks on American soil, a former
U.S. Military Academy psychology professor and Army Ranger said
Friday.
"They're
cowards," said retired Lt. Col. David Grossman, founder of
a new field of study known as "Killology" during remarks
at Hattiesburg's Lake Terrace Convention Center. "They're not
looking for a fair fight."
Grossman's
presentation was sponsored by The University of Southern Mississippi-based
Mississippi Police Corps.
He is widely
sought as a speaker and trainer for both military and police personnel,
and travels 300 days a year conducting training programs.
In his address
to a group of area police officers and cadets in the Southern Miss-administered
program, Grossman warned that preparations need to be made for the
next type of attacks, which could target schools or cripple the
country's economy.
Comparing
the four airplane hijackings of the 9-11 terrorist attacks, Grossman
said four such attacks on schools in this country could grip the
country in fear – shutting down schools for nearly a year while
preparations are made to provide heightened security.
"It would
shut down every single school until they put squad-sized security
in every school," said Grossman, predicting 50-million students
would be out on the street for a year, causing mothers to drop out
of the work force to care for kids and teachers to lose their jobs
– all factors that could undermine the national economy.
Grossman said
that while attending an international conference he learned that
Turkey, faced with hundreds of attacks on its schools by Islamic
extremists, turned the country into a war zone in order to hunt
down the terrorists who committed the acts. "They (Turkish
representatives at conference) were asked ‘How did you make
them stop?' and the response was three words: "We killed them."
As an alternative
to turning schools into armed fortresses, Grossman suggested that
schools put lock-down procedures in place in the event of such an
attack and place well-trained armed guards within the school to
prevent success by the terrorists.
"We don't
have to re-institute the draft" or take other excessive measures,
he said, saying that terrorists "99 percent of the time"
will run when faced with a minimum of trained, opposing force. "They
will go where there is not security," he said. "They are
not looking for a gunfight.
"You
are the lion and they are the jackal," Grossman said to his
audience. "They will run like cowards, the little scum that
they are."
Grossman also
discussed the spread of violence brought on by American citizens,
citing the school shooting incidents of recent years as predictors
of future violence in the workplace. He cited how terrorists, both
international and domestic, are supported by a culture that affirms
their violent behavior. International terrorists, he maintained,
are given a green light by leaders who hate America, and domestic
terrorists are driven by a media and entertainment culture that
glorifies violence and makes them famous.
"His
(terrorist) objective is a body count," Grossman said. "You
must grasp that. They're not interested in hostages. Their goal
is to kill as many humans as humanly possible. Undying fame is their
reward. The sick culture of violence combined with the sick culture
of fame gives us the mass murderer."
Grossman is
the author and co-author of two books, respectively: On Killing:
The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society and
Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill: A Call to Action Against TV, Movie
and Video Game Violence.
Click
to download
Professor Grossman's audio clip
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