“Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little
temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.”

It would be nice if Benjamin Franklin’s famous
aphorism were as widely believed as it is quoted. I doubt that
Sen. Lindsey Graham and his ilk would express disagreement, but one
cannot really embrace Franklin’s wisdom while also claiming that
“the
homeland is the battlefield.” (The very word  homeland should
make Americans queasy.)

If we were to take Graham literally, all of America would look
as the
Boston suburbs looked last Friday — but even worse, because the
government would be monitoring everyone’s reading and web browsing
lest it miss someone becoming “radicalized” in the privacy of his
own home.

Who would want that? Is it a coincidence that virtually every
dystopian novel prominently features a police force
indistinguishable from an army in combat and 24-hour surveillance
by the state?

The Boston Marathon bombing obscures the fact that terrorism is
actually less common in the United States now than in the
past, and that the odds of an American being killed in a terrorist
incident are rather small. (For some perspective, see Brian
Doherty’s article, “3
Reasons the Boston Bombing Case Should Not Change Our Attitudes
About Privacy” and Gene Healy’s “Boston
Bombing Suspects Are Losers, Not Enemy Combatants.”)

An open and (semi-) free society cannot realistically expect to
eliminate the risk of indiscriminate violence. The cost in liberty
and dignity would be way too high — and the attempt would fail.
Moreover, the risk of violence perpetrated by our guardians would
not be eliminated but augmented.

It’s worth emphasizing that we don’t yet know if the actions
allegedly taken by Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev qualify as
terrorism. (Glenn
Greenwald points out that even Alan Dershowitz and Jeffrey
Goldberg are not convinced the bombings do qualify.) As commonly
used, the word terrorism does not mean merely any violent
act that scares people. The Boston
Strangler (Albert DeSalvo) terrorized women in the
early 1960s, yet we don’t think of that as terrorism. (Greenwald

discusses other cases.) Why don’t we regard all mass or serial
killers as terrorists? Because in common usage terrorism
has a political component. This is also the case for official
definitions. (Wikipedia
has the run-down.)

For example, see title 22, chapter 38 of the United States
Code:

The term “terrorism” means premeditated, politically
motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets by
subnational groups or clandestine agents. [Emphasis added.]

And title 18:

The term “international terrorism” means activities that …
involve violent acts or acts dangerous to human life that are a
violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any
State, or that would be a criminal violation if committed within
the jurisdiction of the United States or of any State; [and] appear
to be intended … to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; …
to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or
coercion; or … to affect the conduct of a government by
mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and [which] occur
primarily outside the territorial jurisdiction of the United
States, or transcend national boundaries in terms of the means by
which they are accomplished, the persons they appear intended to
intimidate or coerce, or the locale in which their perpetrators
operate or seek asylum. [Emphasis added.]

And the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations:

The unlawful use of force and violence against persons or
property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian
population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political
or social objectives. [Emphasis added.]

And, finally, the USA PATRIOT Act:

Activities that (A) involve acts dangerous to human life that
are a violation of the criminal laws of the U.S. or of any state,
that (B) appear to be intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a
civilian population, (ii) to influence the policy of a
government by intimidation or coercion, or (iii) to affect
the conduct of a government by mass destruction,
assassination, or kidnapping, and (C) occur primarily within the
territorial jurisdiction of the U.S. [Emphasis added.]