A local TV newscast today called acts of terrorism a "threat to liberty and freedom" at the end of a brief story about the attack at the El Al counter at LAX. At first I was just going to ignore this patent bit of nonsense, but my wife pointed out that this was the sort of half-baked, dangerous thinking that is giving the President and his cronies the leeway they need to push all sorts of new regualtions and guidelines without question.
Terrorists you see really only attack two things: lives and property. By attacking lives and property in surprising and vicious manner, they seek to create change by scaring governments and people into doing what they want. Or, if what they seek is the downfall of a society or political system, the try to scare people into making changes that destroy who they are.
Attacks like the ones on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon can not destroy the United States. New atacks in a similar vein can't destroy the United States. Why? Because we are bigger than any of these things. Just like Palestinian terrorists (or militatnts or freedom fighters) have not destroyed Israel, or forced a withdrawal, al-Qaeda can not do those things to us. Unless we give them the tools to do so.
The real way terrorism hurts the United States is not just in terms of lives or property, though those losses are painful on many levels, but in the changes we adopt in our society. Fear allows scared or opportunistic politicians to push through draconian "security" laws that take away the freedoms that have always made the United States what it is. We are now subject to restrictions on free speech and assembly like never before, with any criticism of the President and his policies being deemed anti-American or unpatriotic. Art galleries and college students receive visits from the FBI investigating "anti-Americanism". Even American citizens can now be detained without representation, hearing, or trial simply because the President deems them dangerous. Non-citizens can be "disappeared" without a trace, in a land that has always extended its COnstitutional protections to all residents both by law and by general consensus. The government can now legally monitor any email, web traffic, or phone conversation they like simply by saying they are investigating "terrorism".
In other words, an extreme act of terror has pushed the land of the free, into the same tactics of the banana republics we have always criticized.
It is time for Americans to reclaim their birthright.