Terrorism works because we allow it to work, because we allow an intentional, unanticipated act of violence to seize us with fear and drive us to emotional overreaction.
'We are richer, and mightier, and far more deadly than any of our terrorist foes could dream of being. And yet we happily play into their hands. We declare a "War on Terror" of our own making, an absurd construct with no possible victory. We overreact so harshly to every injury that our reputation as bullies and savages is confirmed. We allow ourselves to be cowed by fear. We allow ourselves to be rendered senseless by rage. The terrorist lays the bait, and we give him the terror he seeks. The terrorist may be the criminal, but we are the hapless suckers who make his act worthwhile.'
Worse than that, there are plenty of folk who realize that terrorists are not the existential threat we fear. But they are more than willing to stoke those fires of terror and anger and outrage and panic for their own ends: short-term scoring of "points," long-term shifting of our nation and society into something they can more easily gain power and profit from.
None of this means, of course, ignoring those who commit acts of terror. But reaction is not a binary thing, obliviousness and appeasement vs. total war. We have to acknowledge that there may be some painful and unsatisfying conclusions we need to settle for, some solutions that may not give us a thrilling taste of revenge, some recognition that sending our troops willy-nilly into another meat grinder just for the sake of striking back is unwise, unsustainable, and unlikely to actually solve anything of substance — including stopping more attacks by terrorists.
Terrorism Works
Terrorism persists because terrorism works. Terrorism works because we let it.
