Murder, not terrorism

Ok, so this response to a Nigerian man with firecrackers on a plane is really annoying. As a member of academia, I talk to and read plenty of militant leftists on this issue. And being in Nebraska right now, I am reminded or (or beaten over the head with) the typical conservative response to these issues. But I think there is a really obvious and sensible path to follow here.

A "hate America" leftist might respond that America should disband its military empire; stop policing the world and stop protecting American political and economic interests abroad. But this is obviously not going to happen. Very few people agree with this point of view (except perhaps when Clinton was in office...). Its not really hard for me to justify "liberal internationalism" to myself, over the more leftist alternative, and I wont waste the time or space to do so here.

But a shocking number of conservatives, as well as all of the news networks, make an equally bad mistake. By shouting "terrorism" and "threat to our nation's very survival" and by creating all these overbearing rules, they let these extremists get exactly what they want: in addition to occasion murder of American citizens, the extremists achieve additional American suffering, in terms of lost liberties, convenience, and quality of life. By treating them as terrorists and warriors instead of simple criminals and murders, conservatives legitimize and even glorify their attacks. This is both wrong in principle, and wrong because its consequence is raising the likelihood of more attempted murder.

The correct action is to treat this as a simple criminal case, with no glory. Change American lifestyle the minimal necessary to prevent or limit the damage of future attacks. Make it boring and pointless, rather than glorifying, to be an attempted mass-murderer.