Monday, June 25, 2007

And Circus' End

Regrettably, it will end badly, as it did in the last century. Thousands of deaths, tens of thousands of crippled lives, all in the name of an ideology. The price of terrorism remains hidden. We will be very lucky if in the end it is lower than what we paid to let our criminals run wild.

We're beginning to run out of institutions. We have the executive, the military, certain elements of the intelligence community, and, it's true, the higher levels of the judiciary. But that's all. We will learn how well we can do with only that, with virtually every other element of our society either indifferent or actively working to undercut our security. Eventually, of course, the last straw will drop, our defenses will fade like shadows, and we will be left alone in the presence of our enemies.

Those enemies are well aware of all this. How couldn't they be? And they will take advantage of it. Wouldn't you?