I recommend the notion of building a swarming capacity of our own. Police, military and other responders should be prepared to seize control from the terrorists at or near the outset of any incident, wherever it might take place.

The military should be preparing in fresh ways to back up the local first line of defense against Mumbai-style terror strikes. A good step would be to break up the brigade-size reaction force into, say, 50 platoon-size (40 to 50 soldiers each) detachments, then disperse them across the country close to major urban centers, within less than an hour’s reach of any attack site. Between these first and second responders, a dense network of counterterrorist nodes would be ready at all times, all over the country…

In the wake of such an event, it should be expected that networks of armed Americans would spring up on their own to deter or counter terrorist swarms. Indeed, many in the Tea Party are already calling for the passage of enabling “firearms freedom” acts.

Tea Party favorites would probably sympathize with this self-help view as well.