Balko on Terror

He rocks.

By definition, the aim of “terrorism” is not to topple the U.S. government, or even to rack up a massive body count. The aim of terrorism is to cause terror. It’s to scare us. Frighten us. Alter our way of life.

In this sense, the very people who are supposed to be protecting us from terrorists are playing right into the terrorists’ hands. Despite the absence of any specific information, and despite the fact that his saying as much would do little if anything to actually thwart a pending attack, Chertoff still feels he has to go public with his “gut feeling” that something awful might happen this summer. And so the newspapers and Drudge and the blogs run with it. And now we get to go about our summer business with the foreboding cloud of a possible terror attack looming on the horizon.

I’ve been thinking this for quite some time. Every time I hear Neal Boortz, especially, rant about how terrorist are going to kill us, I think he’s just surrendered in the War on Terror.

Except that, with most of these guys, I’m through the looking glass. I know they don’t really think a massive terrorist attack is any more likely today than it will be six months from now. They just want the American people to panic so that they will surrender more of their freedom.

Sorry, I’m not French.