Summary
We support efforts to combat both foreign and domestic terrorists based on a realistic evaluation of the risks and the benefits.
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Background
It is important that we realize that we cannot reduce the possibility of a terrorist attack to zero. Attempting to do so will be so expensive that it will effectively accomplish the terrorist’s objectives by impoverishing us or forcing us to abandon our freedoms to a police state. Decisions in this area need to be driven by a sensible assessment of the risks and the costs.
Sadly, the United States is threatened by both foreign and domestic terrorist groups. In some cases, the line between domestic terrorist threats and foreign threats is blurred by the role foreign governments and groups play in fomenting unrest in the U.S. for their own purposes.
The United States is ill served by allowing the fight against foreign and domestic terrorism to be politicized. Preventing this from happening starts with an admission across the political spectrum that: 1) both foreign and domestic terrorism are real threats, and; 2) domestic terrorism from both the right and the left are real threats.
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