It’s anyone’s guess how we are supposed to stop terrorism by focusing so much of our energies on monitoring the activities of people who will never be terrorists.
Indeed. I've long worried about our civil liberties if we focus on passive defenses at home rather than defeating our jihadi enemies abroad. Over time, if we don't win that war, we will add more and more rules that limit our lives and affect us more than terrorists:
And then we will have a vast security apparatus that treats all of us--everywhere--as potential threats. Which is why from early on in the war on terror I argued that in the name of defending our civil liberties we needed to go on offense (and not just--or even mostly--with our military) to end the war by defeating the jihadis and the ideology that breeds them. If we don't, the security culture will ratchet up again and again until it inflicts more pain on us than our enemies can manage.
The tide of war is receding, we are told. But if so, why do we face more and more security restrictions at home?
Have a super sparkly day!
