I'm not saying he didn't take actions that he believed would cut down on terrorist attacks. I'm simply saying that it's about impossible for anyone to prevent a terrorist attack. The only ones that can truly stop a horrific attack, unless one lucks into some intelligence beforehand, are the attackers themselves. There are simply too many holes and opportunities. It's the problem with being this huge country.

That said, our strategy ought to be good intelligence and that really doesn't require us to be eavesdropping on every phone call and internet chat made. It requires the same kind of human intervention that has worked through the ages. People on the ground embedding themselves into the hotbeds of crime and extremism.

The other tactic and this one is the most important is to attempt to diffuse the anger and frustration that leads people to use terrorist attacks as a strategy. Stop making fucking enemies in the name of spreading democracy. I concur that there are the truly criminally insane individuals that this tactic doesn't work for but they even exist within our own society and are truly a small minority. They're not limited to any particular culture or country.

Art