Complacency, not conspiracy: Why did the Secret Service fail?

If war is 99 percent boredom, then providing security during peace time must be 99.9 percent boredom.

It has become increasingly obvious that the Secret Service failed, at the most basic level, to accomplish its central charge — to keep former President Donald Trump safe.

Unfortunately, it has also become increasingly common for people to wildly speculate about how the assassination attempt was somehow an “inside job” or that there is a greater conspiracy involved.

I served as a Marine Corps infantry officer for seven years and did two combat tours in Helmand Province in Afghanistan. I am intimately familiar with what is required to maintain an aggressive security posture in a hostile environment for a prolonged period. My experience in Afghanistan has also given me insight into how a breakdown in security like this can occur, absent of any grand conspiracy or nefarious motives.

On September 14, 2012, the Taliban attacked the largest base in Helmand Province, Camp Leatherneck/Camp Bastion. The attack involved 15 enemy fighters and resulted in two Marines killed and the largest loss of aviation equipment since the Vietnam War.

It was a bold attack, jarring and surprising in its effectiveness. But should it have been a surprise? What if I were to tell you the following: that the largest base in Helmand province had maintained unmanned posts along its defensive perimeter; that it had target silhouettes and PVC pipes propped up to look like Marines on sentry duty; that the enemy was able to approach increasingly closer to the fence line each night in the lead up to the attack; that the enemy was able to slip into the base without firing a shot.

All of this sounds unbelievable, but unfortunately it’s all true.

Does this mean there was a mole in the U.S. military who was secretly sabotaging the base and planning its downfall from the inside? Of course not. It’s also not the case that the higher-ups weren’t aware of the problem.

In fact, when I was a young lieutenant passing through the base in 2011, I was so appalled to discover the unmanned posts I wrote an angry email to a circle of friends complaining about it. That email, naturally, got leaked and I was punished for writing about it. I was persona non grata among the personnel at Camp Leatherneck. The lead general of the base knew me by name, which is a never a good thing when you’re a lieutenant.

The entire chain of command was aware of this glaring security lapse. Yet nothing was done to rectify it. There were no conspirators, no double agents, nothing exciting or riveting to explain it. Instead, it was endemic of an age-old problem that stems from human nature: complacency.

Anyone who has served in the military over the last few decades is familiar with the mantra “complacency kills.” But there was good reason for that, as one of the most difficult aspects of leading men into combat was keeping them alert and vigilant in the face of extreme boredom.

It has been said that war is “99 percent boredom and 1 percent sheer terror.”

Now imagine what doing security in a peaceful country would be like. In Afghanistan, where there was an active enemy determined to cause death and destruction, we still managed to get so complacent that everyone from generals down to sergeants thought it was acceptable to leave posts unmanned.

At a Trump rally, in a small town in rural Pennsylvania with a few thousand people in attendance, how vigilant do you think the Secret Service were? How much complacency had set in after more than four years of providing security to the former president with no real incidents?

If war is 99 percent boredom, then providing security during peace time must be 99.9 percent boredom.

I’m sure the Secret Service agents saw the building the shooter used that day and identified it as a threat. I’m sure every Secret Service agent could look at the scenario and tell you every single thing wrong with what they did. Just like the Marines at Camp Leatherneck could look back at the Taliban attack and identify that their decision to have unmanned posts was calamitous.

There was no conspiracy. There is no one “in on it.” It’s a case of professionals allowing themselves to get sloppy.

Don’t mistake me for someone who is justifying any of this. I think there should be a thorough investigation and severe consequences for the leaders who allowed this to happen.

What I am instead trying to do is dispense with the unhelpful conjecture and wild theorizing I see other veterans and “experts” engaging in, both online and on television. The military and police are deeply flawed institutions. We all want to believe that they are the best of the best and that they are consummate professionals who always strive to do the right thing. Decades of movies and television shows have helped lead us to believe this.

Unfortunately that simply isn’t the case. Once we accept this reality, it becomes much easier to understand how events like what transpired at the Trump rally — or the attack on a massive U.S. military base — are able to happen without the need for outrageous conspiracy theories.

Patrick B. O’Shea is a former Marine Corps infantry officer.