A hopelessly optimistic sentiment

Real Clear World posted an article by Scott Stewart entitled, "Why al-Qaeda Is Unlikely to Execute Another 9/11". I don't consider his assessment of the likelihood of another large-scale attack like that one to be hopelessly optimistic. I don't have an opinion one way or the other about how likely it is that al-Qaeda can or will do so.

No, what I consider hopelessly optimistic is the idea that the U.S. might take Stewart's closing admonition to heart.

Indeed, despite the concept of a "war on terrorism," the phenomenon of terrorism can never be completely eliminated, and terrorist attacks can and will be conducted by a wide variety of actors (recently illustrated by the July 22 attacks in Norway). However, as we've previously noted, if the public will recognize that terrorist attacks are part of the human condition like cancer or hurricanes, it can take steps to deny the practitioners of terrorism the ability to terrorize.

Denying the ability to terrorize -- I remember a few pundits making that point in the immediate aftermath of the 11 September 2001 attacks. At the time I held out a faint hope that the magnitude of the devastation and the terrible attendant loss of life might shock people into realizing that an eye-for-an-eye strategy was likely to escalate the affair into a neverending cycle (Israelis and Palestinians, anyone?), and that a far superior response would be to continue living in defiant openness and freedom. My faint hope went on life support when George W. Bush started bandying about the infantile expression "war on terror", and flatlined when we attacked Iraq with overwhelming public support.

So while I agree with Stewart's final point, I think -- no, I know -- that if the elementary truth that "terrorism can never be completely eliminated" didn't penetrate the brain of the body politic ten years ago, it never will. We're condemned to carry on this stupid, futile, and wasteful "campaign" until this nation wises up. I won't hold my breath waiting for that to happen.