The WWE Draw a Line In the Sand With ISIS

According to the (London) Daily Mail, the online group Anonymous has said ISIS is planning an attack at the WWE event Survivor Series which will be held in Atlanta, Georgia Sunday evening.  The FBI has said that there is no serious or credible threat, but they are taking it seriously nonetheless.  This must be a comfort to the thousands who will attend the event, to say nothing of the athletes who will be performing, given our government's recent track record of predicting exactly what ISIS is capable of doing.  Then again, it is possible that the FBI is attempting to deke ISIS into a fall sense of security, so that they might catch the terrorists in the act.

Bigger news to me is the fact that the WWE is (at the moment, at least) refusing to let the threat of a terrorist attack detract from their event.  While perhaps not as grave, it harkens back to how Vice President Dick Cheney and President George W. Bush responded in the hours after al Qaeda's attack on September 11th, 2001.  Cheney refused to go in to hiding, once others in the Presidential succession were secure.  Bush returned to Washington 9 hours after the attacks, against the advice of nearly everyone around him.

To confuse a WWE event with an attack on our nation would be ridiculous, but it's a positive attitude to see.  Terrorists thrive on the fear they spread, the way to combat them is to show that our way of life will not be changed, no matter what.  It shows that as Americans, we are not as weak as our current crop of leaders may lead terrorist leaders to believe.  Rather, the move echoes Bush's comments when he said

I knew these terrorists like al-Qaeda liked to prey on weak government and weak people.

ISIS may be terrorists operating under another name, but the message remains clear (for now):  Americans will go about their lives, whether or not their government leads.  The threat of terror is very real, but to succumb to it is to admit defeat in advance.  Kudos to the WWE, and the government officials who are charged with protecting the citizenry.