1. If you let your opponent dictate where you are focusing, what you are acting on, what your agenda is, your opponent has already half-won.
2. There is no opponent so dangerous as one who doesn’t mind dying so long as you are hurt or killed, too.
I don’t know if that’s Sun-Tzu or not, but both items should be remembered as we’re thinking about today’s terrorist attacks.
If we let the terror of these attacks dictate to us what we should do — be it cave in or become more beligerent — then the terrorists have won. They’ve accomplished their purpose.
Should we react? We must. But we need to do so with care, in accord with our principles of freedom, justice, and fairness, and make sure that we don’t hand over a victory to those we are seeking to punish.