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Re: Oceans
Mary Anne — (archived)

Good morning, S_M!

Oceans aren't the deterrent they once were. The international fraternity have missles now. And, apparently, passports.

Though it's probably impossible for a small network of terrorists to launch a massive missle strike against North America, this is not their aim.

Their aim is to destroy the fabric of open Western society by making us all afraid to go out. They can do this with random acts of terror much better than they can with total war. They can turn us against each other. They can induce us to destroy the essence of liberty in order to procure a little temporary safety.

Their object is not to be the equals of the West, but to make the West their equals. If we are reduced to anarchy by the collapse of our infrastructure or to oligarchy by the collapse of our legal protections for individual liberty, their model of religious dictatorship will look more attractive by comparison.

I disagree with your analogy with the war on drugs.

The war on drugs is failing because it criminalizes a public health problem. To drive addicts to underground sources to feed their habits, to make selling drugs profitable by making sellers unanswerable to any social forces except to the free market of the desperate and to the police, and to make the first condition of seeking treatment -- to admit one uses -- into a criminal matter, all guarantee that drug use will continue. To wage a war on drugs is just silly.

Terrorism, on the other hand, is warfare in a genuine sense, but not as we traditionally think of it. It's much more like guerilla war combined with espionage. It's less likely to respond to traditional military tactics because the organization is like a hydra: cutting off one or two tentacles doesn't kill the beast.

The oceans can't protect against this.

Regards--
Mary Anne

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