John Tierney SHOCKINGLY Half Right

Unctuous Junior states:

[I]t's clear that no one can stop terrorists from killing. Spending billions on airport security has simply diverted them to transit systems, and spending billions on transit systems could at best divert them somewhere else: stores, restaurants, sidewalks. Terrorists don't even need bombs. They could simply adopt the snipers' technique for spreading fear.

President Bush briefly admitted last summer to Matt Lauer that the war on terror couldn't ever be won, but he got so much criticism that he promptly backtracked. It was a textbook Washington gaffe: perfectly true but terribly inconvenient.

It was inconvenient because politicians like to promise a cure for any problem in the news, especially if the cure means dispensing money to constituents and campaign contributors.

Promises to halt terror have turned homeland security spending into the biggest porkfest in Washington, and the London attacks have inspired calls for still more spending.

Tierney's focus though is as hackneyed as ever.

The fact is that money we have spent on domestic security is a pittance compared to the blood and treasure of what we have wasted in Iraq.

And HOW is the Iraq Sales Pitch 9.0 being sold now?

Why that attacking them over there makes us safter over here.

Again the key point is that terrorism costs relatively nothing, the terrorists hit of the London Underground didn't even used particular powerful, but incredibly cheap, explosives. The act required few individuals.

There is simply no rationality in this pitch whatsoever, so par for the course I guess.

But god forbid Tierney make his argument without pointing out the gigantic, and gassy, elephant in the room.