Here’s the thing. All of that’s for show.

Part of the problem is that the attacker generally…well…attacks first. By the time the snipers and drones even realize something’s going on, people are already dead and scrambling and the damage has been done.

If a lone-wolf attacker, especially one smart enough to keep his big mouth shut and not look for “how to make big bomb” on his phone, wants to attack, there is absolutely no way to stop them. None. Checkpoints are really just choke points where a whole bunch of people are standing there in a nice, little easy-to-attack group waiting to go to the next checkpoint. Their mission was successful and the damage they inflicted was done before you even realized what was going on . You may be able to pick him off before he does more damage (assuming he didn’t just kill himself in the blast), but the victims are still dead and the message has still been sent.

The ironic part about all of those soldiers and the razor wire and the guns and snipers and stuff is probably having the exact chilling effect that they were trying to avoid in the first place. I don’t care who’s there to protect me from whom. It becomes a question of “You’re going to protect me from them? Well who’s going to protect me from you?” Two people with big guns fighting over supposedly protecting little ol’ me who wants none of it is a classic case of two wolves and a sheep debating what to have for dinner.