Black Box Report

The primary goal of terrorism, as a means to achieve social or political change, is to, y'know, terrorize. To make fear dictate how our societies operate. Along those lines, Jonah Goldberg seems to be upset the failed London bombing wasn't more successful than they were:

Anyway, the irony is that from a policy standpoint, it seems to me that security officials have to view things like the failed London bombing as basically no different than a successful bombing. But because the bombing failed, the policy options to security officials are far narrower precisely because the bombing failed and therefore didn't rouse the sort of political reaction it might otherwise have.

And by political reaction, he means voluntarily giving up your liberties in an effort to be 100% safe, all the time, and succumbing to the fear that terrorists are going to hide in your groceries and sneak into your house! Problem is, the ones carrying out these attacks aren't exactly the sharpest knives in the drawer:

As events unfold I'm simply asking that folks take a big deep breath and try to keep things in perspective. Are there jihadist extremists in the world who are willing to kill innocents? Absolutely. Are they amenable to negotiation? No. I am not in the, "have you hugged a terrorist today" camp. However, we need to stop equating their hatred with actual capability.

Indeed, one of the suspects in the Glasgow incident may have been a brilliant doctor, but they're lousy bomb makers. And second of all, giving up your liberties not only does the terrorists work for them, it doesn't even prevent these things from happening:

The attacks failed because they were organized by incompetent terrorists who failed on their own, not because the UK government did anything in particular to stop or prevent the attacks despite the deep erosion of civil liberties during the Blair years.

So what can we do? Remain vigilant, obviously, and...Don't Panic!

I am not scared. Wasn't scared before 9/11, haven't been since and this reflexive compulsion to scream endlessly about what some comically stupid idiots did at an airport where the only persons hurt where the chumps who did it has...got...to...stop.

But it won't, if for no other reason than you can't get a decent authoritarian police state in place these days unless people are good and terrorized. And so the rightwing alarmists will continue doing what they do. Or as Tbogg put it:

I've said before that these are the kind of people who start pondering cannibalism when the motor on the boat conks out ten feet from shore.

Remember, nobopdy ever had a really brilliant idea in the middle of a panic attack.