News of Israel's apparently successful deployment of its Iron Dome defense against indiscriminate rocket attacks on civilians is the kind of good news only a terrorist would oppose. While the new device was not officially finished and ready to enter service, real-world need took priority. When mace, sword,or axe are being swung against your head, it is no time to quibble over holding up any shield available -- no matter how much more work you would like to do on it under ideal conditions. If the success of the Iron Dome continues as now reported (in, for example, http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4053837,00.html), then Iron Dome becomes to citizen defense what aikido is to martial arts: the kind of defense so nonaggressive as to even be accepted in hospital settings.
Why is this the case with aikido? Aikido is purely defensive. It teaches no aggressive moves, not even the grunt or shout that other martial disciplines insist on combining with strikes and kicks. Since there are no strikes or kicks in aikido, practitioners seldom feel themselves at a loss. Moreover, aikido has no tournaments nor most of the other aggressive trappings of the disciplines which, under the banner of self-defense, happen to include a fair dollop of tactical incapacitation of adversaries. Indeed, in aikido, one is supposed to take care to avoid needlessly inflicting pain even against an opponent who is unconstrained by similar thoughts. Aikidoists avoid, deflect,or neutralize an attack without trying to harm the attacker. They may immobilize an attacker but are ethically constrained from intentionally harming him. This is why aikido is reportedly the only martial art approved for use in restraining violent patients at psychiatric hospitals. Imagine boxing or karate being approved in similar settings.
What will the opponent's reaction be to Iron Dome's effect as technological aikido? Look for a cry of foul, precisely the same way one would expect a drunken aggressor who tried to punch out an aikidoist later claim that the defender was, in reality, the one who started it and caused the greater damage. Perhaps even self-inflicted wounds will surface to trumpet before a naive or receptive media to advance claims that a purely defensive system is somehow a first-strike weapon of mass destruction.
-- Nick Catrantzos
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Nick Catrantzos + Tom Goff
- All Secure
- NICK CATRANTZOS is the lead author of the All Secure website and is the emeritus security director for a large public organization. He has also managed security aspects of corporate takeovers, response to international hostage situations, and finding and keeping secrets. He has been board certified in security management, licensed as a private investigator, and certified as an incident commander. He worked as a case officer for a discreet branch of public service. He protected stealth technology at Lockheed and, later, as a consulting security director for both Kroll and Control Risks, he assisted executives with workplace violence cases and with protecting VIPs and critical assets globally in volatile areas. Nick's partner, TOM GOFF, was a captain in the Military Police Corps, U.S. Army Reserve and has a law degree from the University of California at Davis. He is a former reporter for Fortune Magazine, was senior editor at New York Magazine and Esquire, and has provided crisis and communications counsel to senior executives at Fortune 500 companies, including Lockheed, ARCO, Microsoft, Nissan, and Sony Pictures.