France is mobilising 7,000 soldiers and increasing its alert status to “emergency attack” level after the death of a teacher in the northeast town of Arras, stabbed to death Friday by a former student with a record of Islamic radicalisation.
President Emmanuel Macron made the decision after convening an emergency meeting of his security cabinet on Friday night.
Macron has described the stabbing attack, which left two other staff members at the school seriously injured, as “Islamist terrorism.”
So security theater. It accomplishes nothing
They do accomplish things. This attacks test and measure (implicitly) reaction time and let that nation know that the attacker is capable of reaching, and therefore attacking that point.
Scrambling/readiness state shows:
That enemy/unidentified hostiles will be intercepted, and destroyed if necessary.
Sends a message that the country’s (or whosoever) defenses are on alert and will react swiftly to any perceived threat.
Sends a message that the intruding enemy is not wanted and will not be tolerated.
it also provides an unexpected drill for the militia. So bonus points I guess