People can be very resilient. Witness the endurance of the British during the Blitz of WWII. We experience tens of thousands of deaths from traffic accidents year after year, yet a large percentage of people can't even be bothered to wear their seat belts. I suspect hundreds or even thousands of deaths a year from terrorism might be something we'd eventually just learn to live with. After all, many thousands of Americans already die from violent acts yearly. There would likely be a diminishing return with each successive conventional terror attack. That's why I believe that terrorists seek the sort of paradigm shift offered by a successful CRBN type of terror attack.

I also suspect that there is a psychological tipping point with violent extremists, who are already likely clinically insane, where they become so enamored with violence itself that they no longer really care about the cause that initially motivated them. Therefore, they cannot be deterred by the possibility of reciprocal damage to that cause. They'd rather just keep killing. I don't think Osama bin Laden would be put off in the least by us nuking Mecca. In fact, I think he would welcome it as an excuse to keep on killing infidels. Retaliation is not the solution to terrorism.

Indeed, there is little we in the West can do directly to stop Islamic extremist terrorism. It will only end when the people in the Islamic world are ready to stop it themselves. I suspect that won't happen for 25 years or so, when a new generation rises to power with a lifetime of experience living with the consequences of extremism and violence. In the meantime, all we can do is remain firm, vigilant, restrained and patient. It's the only effective way to deal with a hostile ideology. Given time, violent Islamic extremism, like PHRASECENSOREDPOSTERSHOULDKNOWBETTER., will be snuffed out by its own people, not us.

Jeff