The Proper Response

The G8 leaders were appropriately outraged, but that's not enough. If terrorism is to be defeated, terrorism must not just fail -- it must be seen as counter-productive, as a tactic that sets back the causes it claims to champion.

To accomplish this, Blair should have said that since the terrorists are demanding that Britain remove its troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, he will send additional troops to both countries. Other G8 leaders should have said that they, too, will now take additional measures in support of the coalition effort.

If that were the consistent response to terrorism, eventually the message would penetrate. Moderate Muslims would denounce terrorism as wrong. Even more important, radicals would denounce terrorism as a blunder. Rivals to Osama bin Laden and Abu Musab al- Zarqawi would say: "They are making our goals more difficult to achieve."

The Wall Street Journal adds this: "Islamists are most dangerous when they sense weakness. And they can be forgiven for detecting it as they've watched debates in Europe and the U.S. in recent months. The calls to close Guantanamo, the recriminations over rendition of terror suspects, the demands for a 'date certain' to withdraw from Iraq: In the mind of al Qaeda these are all signs of the West's flagging will to prevail...

"America may be less vulnerable than Europe to this Israelization of terror, but it is hardly immune. The U.S. Islamic population is less radicalized than Europe's and, unlike in Israel, the terrorists lack the safe haven of Palestine. But it is virtually impossible in a free society to stop a fanatic willing to kill himself with a backpack full of explosives. That Islamists haven't mounted such an attack in the U.S. suggests not they aren't willing but that they haven't been able to. And one reason has been the forceful American response in the wake of 9/11." The full editorial is here.