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04.18.2013 0

Terrorism is terrorism

By Adam Bitely — The political overreaction to the Boston Marathon Bombings has already begun. And, as usual in the aftermath of a tragedy, the supporters of government fixing all problems have risen to the top of the debate.

This is not to say that the government should have no power in stopping crime and preventing terrorism. Simply put, there are many who do not understand that no matter how much freedom innocent American civilians give up in the name of security, it will not necessarily lead to an overall safer nation.

Politicians, former politicians, actors, comedians and the punditry are already hitting the airwaves with remedies and solutions. The politicians and government officials did not foresee this horrible tragedy (no one else did either) but suddenly they have a millions things the government should do to ensure a terrorist doesn’t disrupt life.

Some of the solutions shouted from the peanut gallery? Eradicate the second amendment.

Comedian Jay Mohr said the 2nd amendment promotes a culture of violence. Is he aware that the 2nd amendment — which deals with an American’s right to keep and bear guns — does not deal with building explosives and blowing up your fellow man? Perhaps he was joking. But like the rest of his jokes, this wasn’t funny.

Within minutes of the Boston Marathon Bombings, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof tweeted “Explosion is a reminder that ATF needs a director. “Shame on Senate Republicans for blocking apptment.” A few hours later, Kristof apologized and admitted that his earlier tweet was a “low blow.” But what could a director of the ATF have done to prevent the attack that thousands of other security professionals hadn’t already done? This was pointing the finger in a very cheap attempt to score political points.

And what may have been the silliest contribution to the post-attack flood of columns and opinions was a piece from Salon entitled “Let’s hope the Boston Marathon Bomber is a White American.” The column from David Sirota suggests that unless the terrorist is white, the government would destroy the freedoms of certain groups and target the ancestral homelands of any non-white terrorist.

Sirota wildly misses the point. No matter who the terrorist is, the government will take actions that they believe will convince the public that action is being taken. This could be tougher gun-control laws that do nothing to percent terrorism but show the government doing something to the government creating a new agency to house even more security professionals to hunt terrorists.

What we do know is that no matter what your political ideology is, terrorism is terrorism. The person who commits the terror acts doesn’t matter. But failing to understand that there are people who do evil things and that even the best devised security system won’t catch everything can be more deadly to freedom than the terrorist is.

As Ben Franklin said, “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” And those who believe that the government is capable of protecting us from every human ill must remember that the government is run by humans. They won’t catch everything. And giving up our rights so that they can try to is a folly.

Adam Bitely is the Editor-in-Chief of NetRightDaily.com. You can follow NetRightDaily on Twitter at @NetRightDaily.

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