Keep Calm and Carry On

"Resilient societies have a level-headed understanding of the risks inherent in this kind of warfare.
"But, of course, this is not how the country has reacted over the past week. There have been outraged calls for Secretary Janet Napolitano of the Department of Homeland Security to resign, as if changing the leader of the bureaucracy would fix the flaws inherent in the bureaucracy. There have been demands for systemic reform—for more protocols, more layers and more review systems.
"Much of the criticism has been contemptuous and hysterical."

David Brooks in The New York Times castigates American reactions to the would-be Christmas bomber.

And Paul Campos of Lawyers, Guns and Money argues that such reactions are "very helpful to terrorists, since such demands place the bar for what counts as successful terrorism practically on the ground."