The Truth About Terrorism

So terrorists have struck again, jolting us again out of our supposed world of safety that we naively fall back into time after time. This time it's a subway in Great Britain.

There are two truths about terrorism.

Truth number one is that it is impossible to stop. No matter how hard we try, terrorism can not be stopped. If someone wants to blow up a subway, all they have to do is build a bomb, catch a ride on the subway, and set it off. To stop the bomb from getting on the subway, you would have to personally search every single passenger's baggage, or use a foolproof machine. Even that wouldn't guarantee detection. And who says the terrorist has to get on the subway? What if he just sets it off at the station? Now you have to check the baggage of every single person that enters the station, whether they board a subway or not. But what if he sets it off just outside the station? Now you have to check the baggage of every single person out in public, which is simply impossible. The only way such a plan is even remotely conceivable involves complete video surveillance of everywhere, and even that would only guarantee detection, not prevention.

Terrorism is impossible to stop, but even more so in a democracy or republic. Security is inversely proportional to privacy; to add to one, you must subtract from the other. If people are getting worked up about a Chicago security system that can detect gunshots, just think how they would react to a complete, all-encompassing system. To have total security, you must have no privacy, and that is unacceptable in today's society.

But the inevitability of terrorism leads many to abandon truth number two: Terrorism must always be fought against. We are still required to do everything we can to prevent it from spreading further and from happening again. That is why we cannot leave Afghanistan or Iraq until we achieve victory. Whether or not you believe Iraq was a threat in the past, there are obviously terrorists there now, and it's our duty to fight them.

If you had a hose on the side of your house and your neighbor's house was on fire, would you say that it wasn't your problem and you shouldn't waste your time dealing with it? No! You would turn on your hose and extinguish whatever you could! Likewise, the problems in Iraq are our problems. There is no reason to pull out of Iraq. There is no reason to say it's not our responsibility. We are all descended from one man. Iraqi lives are not worth less than American lives. If a human's life is endangered, it is the responsibility of every person---who is in the position of defending it---to defend it!

Terrorism, like sin, is impossible to prevent. But, like sin, we keep fighting it anyway, striving for the perfection we know we can't reach.

Edmond the Hun