Dear A-Letter Reader:
When the horrible scenes of human carnage in London came over the TV Thursday morning, you and I probably shared that sickening feeling of unwelcome d?©j?† vu. God grant eternal peace to those who lost their lives, and comfort to their loved ones in this terrible time of pain.
While the magnitude of the assault hardly equaled that of the New York and Washington terror attacks of September 11, 2001, these random brutal killings of innocents by fanatics rightly suggest that it could have been our loved ones, or you or me—and that this can happen at any time anywhere in the world.
My friend, Doug Bandow, senior fellow at the Cato Institute, writes:
“It is hard for most people steeped in the humane, liberal values of Western Civilization to understand the massacre of innocents; to slaughter to make a political point. But terrorism is not likely to disappear. Indeed, it is a surprisingly common practice. Although Americans were taken unaware on Sept. 11, many other peoples have long suffered from the murderous attention of domestic and foreign terrorists.” Think Tel Aviv. Bali. Madrid. Belfast. London. Moscow. Chechnya. Ceylon. Baghdad. Oklahoma City.
As an Israeli friend told me in a phone call from Cyprus after the London bombings: “We have endured this kind of horror for more than a half century from similar sources. Now maybe others will understand why we have resolved to meet force with force.”
In The A-Letter a few days after Sept. 11, 2001, I quoted my friend and former colleague US Rep. Ron Paul of Texas. His words apply now more than ever:
“Times of tragedy and war naturally bring out strong emotions. Sometimes people are only too anxious to sacrifice their constitutional liberties during a crisis, hoping to gain some measure of security. Yet nothing would please terrorists more than if we willingly gave up our cherished liberties because of their actions.”
No doubt there will be demagogic attempts to use the London bombings as justification for renewal of the PATRIOT Act, and worse. These must be rejected.
Having served in Congress I know how panicky politicians react in times of crisis; witness the many liberties we have lost under the false banner of the failed war on drugs and now under the excuse of ‘terrorism.’
I have no doubt that those of a police state mentality, mouthing this cry of anti-terrorism, will redouble efforts to infringe on civil rights, hoping most of us won’t resist.
America truly is threatened by terrorism, but also by complacency and ignorance.
Long after London, the real legacy of these attacks will be how free peoples react to these greatest of all provocations.
As Doug Bandow said: “Terrorism is common, and will persist, because it is a tool of the weak versus the strong, a cheap military weapon to achieve expensive political goals. As long as there are people willing to kill to advance their ends, there will be terrorists.”
The question is whether we have the understanding and the will to resist and gain the triumph, without destroying our own way of life - that very destruction being the terrorists’ major goal.

That’s the way it looks from here.
Bob Bauman, Editor