Fareed Zakaria and Peter Beinart both argue that we should not panic in response to the underwear bomber, foolish overreactions being part of what terrorists are after. I agree with everything they write except their premise: that Americans have reacted hysterically. I don’t believe that the typical American has responded to the plot by demanding increased screening for all passengers, for example, to cite one of the examples of foolish overreaction that Zakaria uses. Such proposals have in fact received a vigorous pushback, including in the media that the authors use as a foil.