Over-reaction and Over-correction

[chris_gerrib]

Sometimes over-reaction and over-correction can be worse than not reacting at all. For example, during the Civil War, General George McClellan was so famously cautious as to prompt President Lincoln to ask if he could borrow McClellan's army "since he wasn't using it."

At times I think we're approaching McClellan-ish levels of caution with terrorism. Please don't get me wrong - there are terrorists and Islamic fundamentalists who are out to kill as many Americans as possible, and they aren't terribly picky as to which Americans. On the other hand, when I hear of "Jihad Jane", (actually Colleen LaRose), the 4 foot 11 inch suburban housewife / woman who talked to her cats, I suspect that she's only marginally more dangerous then The Three Stooges. Which is why, like Jim Henley, I think we need to treat her like a plain ole-fashioned criminal / kook.

Towards the end of McClellan's tour, during the Maryland campaign, he had a chance to crush Lee at Antietam. But he was so scared of Lee that he kept two Army Corps - a force nearly equal to Lee's - in reserve the entire battle. I'm concerned that, if Al Qaida ever gets smart and changes from the current strategy of "big attacks"* to a series of little attacks, we'll scare ourselves silly and over-react. Putting your enemy in proper perspective is important.


* Considering both the last to "big attacks" (Hasan and the Underpants Bomber) resulted in fewer casualties combined than one US drone strike, they are "big attacks" only in the minds of some.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Over-reaction is the modus operandi of one of our political parties. I will leave it to the reader to figure out which one I mean.

Jerry Critter
critterscrap.blogspot.com

[daveon.livejournal.com]

One of the things that helped edge the British through negotiations was a switch by the IRA from "spectaculars" with civilian hits to economic nuisance attacks.

A couple that spring to mind were bridge attacks. They didn't take any out, they didn't even actually have that much explosive, but in the case of one incident they shut down the main M1 motorway junction in London for a busy Saturday and essentially grid locked North London for 8 hours.

People get used to certain things and they really do tend to knuckle down when it comes to attacks - but inconvenience them and something *has* to be done.

That said, I suspect that part of the problem is the British, Spanish and Israeli reactions to terrorism are probably not mappable onto the general USian population. You do actually get used to that sort of thing.

[chris-gerrib.livejournal.com]

Jordan - how about we try to only kill actual terrorists? That's the more humane approach. It's also the more productive one.

Dave - I know you and Jordan have a history, but please let's all keep our cool here.