In some ways it's not such a bad thing that President Barack Obama took more than 10 days to respond to the botched bombing of an airplane bound for Detroit and when he did respond it was with a brief statement that said, in effect, that our review is ongoing and recommendations will be forthcoming. Terrorism is practiced by weak players who cannot confront a major power militarily, or even with a guerrilla force, but target civilians in an effort to spread fear and provoke overreaction confirming that the United States is really the Great Satan who wants to root out Islam.
The more aggressively a great power responds to a failed or successful terrorist incident, the more prestige and ability to recruit new members a terrorist organization gains. Obviously one can't simply dismiss an effort that, if it had succeeded, would have led to several hundred deaths, but it's not a bad idea to keep it in perspective. Terrorism is obviously a grave threat. But more Americans died in the preceding decade from the flu than from terrorism.
Terrorism is a threat but hardly the gravest threat, especially compared, for example, with the financial meltdown that has devastated so many American families.
President Obama did acknowledge that this was a systemic intelligence failure — that various people in various organizations had enough information to have prevented a troubled young Nigerian from boarding that airplane, but they didn't "connect the dots." But he drew the wrong inference. He didn't acknowledge that America's intelligence bureaucracies are clumsy, in part, because they are overgrown and should probably be trimmed back and focused more tightly. Instead, government failure partially due to bureaucracies being too large and complex will be addressed by making them larger and more complex.
The paradox that government failure leads to larger government as the only answer is highlighted by the president's failure to acknowledge the role of ordinary citizens in thwarting this failed attack. Ordinary citizens are our greatest asset in this conflict, but the emphasis on increased government activity essentially sidelines them. Too bad.
REPRINTED FROM THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER.
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