As we focus on the facts surrounding the Boston Marathon bombing, Kevin D. Williamson reminds us with his latest National Review Online column that the United States faces very few incidents of this type, Why? Williamson outlines factors such as effective counterterrorism effort, the difficulty in creating bombs, and the apparent disinterest of most U.S.-based terrorist groups in attacking civilians.
The worst-case scenario, which is by no means unlikely, is that the disciplined and organized turn their attention to the softest targets. Boston reminds us that responding to such a development would be a difficult thing indeed.
Much of the new security regimen that has been implemented post-9/11 is focused on spectaculars and attacks on high-profile targets. Keeping in mind that hindsight is famously acute, remember that both 9/11 and the heinous murders at Newtown might have been prevented by the most old-fashioned of security measures: having a sturdy door and locking it. (Sandy Hook Elementary School had locked doors, but the doors were glass, and Adam Lanza simply shot through them.) But there is very little in place to prevent a loosely coordinated series of low-level attacks, Boston-level bombings in a dozen cities at once.
There is not a great deal that a free society can do to combat that: A committed group of terrorists willing to give up their own lives in exchange for ideological or religious satisfaction can bring any open society to its knees — that is the unpleasant fact. But that does not mean that there is nothing at all we can do. The best-organized terrorist threat remains Islamist, and Islamist terror is at least in some part international by nature. Proper vetting of visa applicants, rigorous policing of those who overstay their visas, and, if necessary, severe restrictions on travel to the United States from Islamist hotbeds such as Pakistan and Egypt would go a long way toward ensuring that Islamist violence remains a largely overseas phenomenon. Unlike Israel, the United States is not vulnerable to rocket attacks from an adjacent Sinai; Islamist terrorists need to be here to do much damage, and keeping them out should be the first priority of all of our border and immigration authorities. If that means inconveniencing a great number of well-intentioned travelers from Cairo or students from Islamabad, so be it. That is the more humane option: A six-month wait for a visa surely is preferable to a drone circling overhead.
