Six years after terrorists devastated my residential compound in Saudi Arabia, terrorism again came to my doorstep for a visit.
This time I was in Afghanistan.
At 0010 on Aug. 18, 2009, I was asleep at Forward Operating Base Stone in western Afghanistan near the Iranian border when an explosion jolted me awake.
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For an instant, I thought I was back in Riyadh.
The thunderous explosion was accompanied by shattered glass flying through my small room. My immediate thought was that terrorists had attacked the front gate and a ground assault was underway.
Instead, we were under rocket attack.
Ten Chinese made 107mm rockets were fired over approximately two hours. We remained at general quarters until about 0230.
I rolled out of my bunk in the darkness and stepped on something that felt like red-hot metal. I found my helmet and flak jacket in the dark, pulled them on over my gym shorts, slipped into my clogs and headed for the nearest bomb shelter.
Only at first light did I understand how close I had come to being killed.
The first rocket had struck an adjacent building approximately 10 meters from my living quarters.
Shrapnel ripped through the outside wall, passed through my room, and penetrated the interior wall into adjoining rooms. Pieces tore through my clothing, blankets, and personal belongings. Very few of my belongings were salvageable.
When I examined my bunk, I found shrapnel holes above it.
Below it.
And beside it.
Yet somehow, I walked away with little more than a blister on the bottom of my foot from stepping on hot shrapnel.
I had survived two combat tours in Vietnam, receiving only minor wounds, none requiring medical treatment, including 190 aerial-observer missions over some of the most heavily defended territory of that war. Now, decades later, terrorism had followed me from Saudi Arabia to Afghanistan. And, once again, by the grace of God, I was fortunate!
Those two experiences, separated by six years and thousands of miles, reinforced one enduring lesson: The enemy counts on complacency, and they never stop looking for opportunities.
Terrorism succeeds when governments and societies begin believing a threat has disappeared simply because it is temporarily out of sight.
A terrorist does not necessarily need to defeat an army. He needs only an opening. An unprotected gate. An intelligence failure. A predictable routine.
Or a government unwilling to confront a developing threat until innocent people have already been killed. Taking away guns from law-abiding citizens ensures only the perpetrators have guns i.e. the Dec. 14, 2025 Bondi Beach massacre in Australia.
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Technology changes. Battlefields change. Terrorist organizations rise, fracture, disappear and sometimes reappear under different names.
While their aims and objectives remain focused and determined to indiscriminately kill.
The terrorist looks for weakness. The defender must deny him that opportunity.
That does not mean societies should live permanently in fear. Fear is precisely what terrorism is designed to produce.
Nor should fighting terrorism require democratic societies to abandon the principles distinguishing them from people who deliberately murder innocent civilians.
It means remaining alert, with your head on a swivel.
It means remembering previous attacks rather than relegating them to history once the headlines disappear.
It means sharing intelligence, maintaining capable security forces, incorporating new technology, rehearsing responses and having the resolve to act when credible threats emerge.
I have seen what happens when terrorists reach their objective. I have walked through a residential compound reduced to rubble. I have lost friends and colleagues.
And I have awakened in the middle of the night to an enemy rocket exploding approximately ten meters from where I slept, then stood the next morning looking at shrapnel holes surrounding the bunk I had occupied seconds before the explosion.
Those experiences taught me something I have never forgotten: Terrorism cannot always be prevented. Complacency can.
The greatest mistake a nation can make is assuming yesterday’s enemy has disappeared simply because today’s headlines have moved on to something else.
Terrorism does not require our fear to survive. It requires being alert, situationally aware, and prepared for rehearsing “what if” scenarios.
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And history has repeatedly demonstrated the price nations can pay when these elements are forgotten.
The recent Flydubai co-pilot incident in the Middle East now emphasizes the need for closer vetting of all aircraft crew members to avoid a similar incident.
Tom Williams is a retired Marine Corps lieutenant colonel with 28 years of active-duty service, including two tours in Vietnam, evacuation of Americans from Beirut in 1976, and the liberation of Kuwait in 1990-91, followed by 11 years of contract training and mentoring in Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan, and is the author of Heart of a Marine book series; www.heartofamarineseries.com
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
