"Terrorism Is Rare"

Mumbai should not cause us - or India - to panic. How many Indians died in Mubai over those few days from traffic accidents or preventable disease? Schneier elaborates:

If there's any lesson in these attacks, it's not to focus too much on the specifics of the attacks. Of course, that's not the way we're programmed to think. We respond to stories, not analysis. I don't mean to be unsympathetic; this tendency is human and these deaths are really tragic. But 18 armed people intent on killing lots of innocents will be able to do just that, and last-line-of-defense countermeasures won't be able to stop them. Intelligence, investigation, and emergency response. We have to find and stop the terrorists before they attack, and deal with the aftermath of the attacks we don't stop. There really is no other way, and I hope that we don't let the tragedy lead us into unwise decisions about how to deal with terrorism.

Massie adds: "I'm afraid that's true. The initial threat may come from terrorism; the second danger comes from our response to terror." And this is insight is not a function of left or right; it's a function of the necessary perspective to frame the maximal response, which may not mean military force.