September, 2006

The Case for Doing Nothing

by Veronique de Rugy

September 28th, 2006

Ervin is right. I haven’t addressed his fundamental point yet. So I guess I should do it now. I agree with him and have no doubt that “Al Qaeda and its acolytes remains determined to attack us again.” Nevertheless, I suspect that their ability to pull off “another devastating attack” is largely overblown. John and [...]

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It Is How You Deal with the Threat that Matters

by Timothy Naftali

September 27th, 2006

This blog has certainly gotten to be fun. Clark says that I misconstrued his God analogy in my first response. Actually what I did was not engage it because I thought it beside the point. But since Clark repeated it, I will engage it now. Essentially Clark’s argument is that it is better to be [...]

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Threats Overblown

by John Mueller

September 26th, 2006

I would like strongly to associate myself with Timothy Naftali’s comment, “Misunderstanding the Threat.”
My book, Overblown, due out in November, focuses particularly on perceptions of the terrorist threat, arguing that, while the threat exists and is “real,” it has been systematically and very substantially exaggerated. However, the book also takes a look back at other [...]

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Al Qaeda and the Cold War

by Clark Kent Ervin

September 26th, 2006

It is noteworthy that neither John, nor Veronique, nor Tim has yet engaged my fundamental point, while it seems to me that I have engaged theirs. Of course, we can’t protect ourselves against every conceivable threat. We don’t have the resources or imagination to do that. Yes, a balance must be struck between security and [...]

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