Carry on

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Andrew Sullivan has some words of wisdom in response to the recent events in the U.K:

The worrying aspect of the British terror-rash is that it's obviously an amateur effort, inspired rather than organized by al Qaeda. This means we are likely to face more of these things, but that most of them are not going to be massively successful. They can still be deadly, of course, and we should be vigilant. But it seems to me we shouldn't grant them the capacity to terrify us.

See also Steve Benen, who quotes a former Scotland Yard detective:

I think that rather than using the all-embracing term of 'al Qaeda,' I think that you should be using the term 'jihadists,' which I think makes more sense. Because, though they may share common purposes with al Qaeda, I don't think that al Qaeda has the control to operate something like this. They could operate a major terrorist outrage, but I think it would be more professionally run. I mean this was a hopeless, incompetent terrorist attack.

Getting it right, and keeping it in perspective, would seem to be the beginning of a proper response to the threat of terrorism. But that is too much to ask of the media, it seems, which are hell-bent on sensationalizing terrorism and ratcheting up the fear, passing off hyped-up misrepresentation as truth. And, of course, that is also too much to ask of those on the right who for a variety of reasons, mostly malignant and ill-conceived, wish to ratchet up the so-called war on terror and who seek to benefit politically from a culture of perpetual fear.