Barcelona-style vehicle attacks almost impossible to defend against

The sheer simplicity of this kind of act is precisely the problem. How easier can a terrorist plot be?

Police investigate the scene in Ottawa where Islamic extremist Michael Zehaf-Bibeau fatally shot Cpl. Nathan Cirillo in October 2014. Phil Gurski writes that defending against attacks on crowds by terrorists in vehicles is near impossible. The Hill Times photograph by Jake Wright

Opinion

BY PHIL GURSKI

August 21, 2017

The carnage last week in Barcelona is getting to be depressingly familiar. An individual drives a vehicle (car, van, 18-wheeler) into an unsuspecting crowd of people, strewing them like bowling pins. Innocent people are injured, some horribly, and some die (maybe mercifully quickly or agonisingly ...

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