24: Quandries

Last night's episodes, which were live blogged at Blogs4Bauer, encapsulate many of the quandries the US and other Western powers face when dealing with terrorist groups. Do they give in to terrorist demands in the face of escalating violence, or do they go after the terrorists with expanded powers? Do they make deals with a mass-murdering terrorist who claims that he's seen the error of his ways to help thwart an even bigger terrorist threat? Can a person who personally witnessed the horrors inflicted by the mass-murdering terrorist handle the news of a presidential pardon so that they get the needed intel to stop a nuclear-capable terrorist organization? Will civil liberties groups recognize that the threat isn't always the government action, but terrorists who will exploit those civil liberties to kill thousands or millions of Americans with sufficient opportunity. Will members of a given community speak out and assist the government when presented with the opportunity to do so. Mistaken beliefs and judgments may lead to serendipitious results and intel.

How much do chance and luck play in obtaining intel, and how much is the result of people taking matters into their own hands?

We see this come to a head on the show as the Islamic terrorists conduct a series of suicide bombings throughout the country designed to secure the release of 100+ terrorists held in a detention facility. With thousands dead and injured on US soil, the fictional president relents and releases the prisoners, despite there being no real way to trust that the terrorists will stop their deadly carnage. The Islamists apparently have one guy working on the inside who helps one particular terrorist escape, and his true identity becomes known at the last moment - he's a guy who knows how to rewire suitcase nukes. Despite having him in custody, no one within the government was able to put the pieces together. The final pieces come via the mass-murdering terrorist who provides a key piece of intel.

24 provides some its own answers to the quandries - never release terrorists if captured because they will come back to haunt the nation. Make deals with certain terrorists if the threat posed by other terrorists is sufficiently large so that you get the needed intel. You have to sometimes work with bad characters to get information you need to protect the nation from attack. There are going to be people in the government that will not like this, and may take matters into their own hands. The outcome is that we lose good people. 24 also provides conspiracies within conspiracies, as we see from the previews that the Islamists may be cahoots with some other nasty types who we've seen before. Again, this appears to stem from the belief that Islamists will work with those who may not have the same beliefs, but have similar goals.

And no good deed goes unpunished.

Even if everything works and the intel agencies find the terrorists, they may arrive too late to stop the events unfolding.

Still, the number one lesson on 24: always listen to Jack Bauer. Jack's instincts were right on the money.