Res Publica 2005

There have been people poopoohing the reality of terrorism lately. A special ran on the BBC that said it was a boogie man that was used by politicians.

This is not true. It does tend to reflect the high success of Western authorities in the WOT. But even since 9/11 there have been the attack in Spain, the attacks in Russia, attacks in Saudia Arabia, Egypt, and Southteast Asia.

At the Belmont Club, Wretchard says this about the BBC special:

The most interesting aspect of Curtis' argument is the narrowness of its cast. By limiting his set of terrorist incidents to the developed world, and to Europe in particular, he arrives at the conclusion that terrorism does not exist. He looks around his world and asks, 'where is it?'. Kashmir, Algeria, Saddamite Iraq, Sudan, the Balkans, Indonesia, Timor and the Philippines -- to name a few places -- are ommitted from his account. The wonder is not that he omitted them; the astounding thing would have been if he had included it. The Left has displayed a magnificent indifference to death in the Third World and only slightly more sensitivity to deaths in the Balkans.

In places like Basilan in Mindanao, terrorism is not a nightmare. It is the waking day. The Australian Government, for example, issued a travel advisory warning its citizens from visiting Mindanao not because it feared some Freddy Kreuger intruding upon Aussie dreams as they lay in their beds in the Lantaka Hotel, but to guard against something more substantial, like a hand grenade pitched in at the seaside bar. You go to shrink to defend against nightmares. In places like Jolo a shrink will get you nowhere. But an automatic rifle will, and I have heard fathers lovingly describe a prospective purchase of a Browning Automatic Rifle or an M-1919 machinegun in the anticipatory tones of someone who has bought health insurance for his children. The "Power of Nightmares" should be shown in both the Muslim and non-Muslim parts of Mindanao. It should do well, billed as comedy.

Hiding one's head in the sand, forgetting the reality of screaming death coming unexpected in smoldering fragments and dust will not buy one anything. You can't ignore your way out of it, because the way of life in the West is antithetical to the goals of the terrorists. The seeds are already planted in our cities and watered in our colleges and coffee houses. The more we ignore it and go on our decadent way, the sooner the house will come tumbling down.

There IS no going back to September 10.