The Protracted Conflict

I continue and conclude this trio of comments on the spreading terror epidemic.

In trying to devise effective antiterror tactics, there are two basic and perhaps insuperable difficulties: first, the fact that many people and many governments are not really against all terrorist actions; and second, the fact that successful antiterrorism may turn out to be worse than the terrorism to which it responds—the cure worse than the disease, in which case, as physicians put it, the lesion does not justify the therapy.

JB

About the Author

James Burnham

I continue and conclude this trio of comments on the spreading terror epidemic.

In trying to devise effective antiterror tactics, there are two basic and perhaps insuperable difficulties: first, the fact that many people and many governments are not really against all terrorist actions; and second, the fact that successful antiterrorism may turn out to be worse than the terrorism to which it responds—the cure worse than the disease, in which case, as physicians put it, the lesion does not justify the therapy.