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This is a nice point by Yglesias:
If the FBI has reason to believe a terrorist is holed up in an apartment somewhere in Philadelphia, we don't bomb the building -- we arrest the terrorist. The same thing is generally true abroad -- we need to work with friendly law enforcement to unravel plots against targets in Europe and Canada and other Western nations. But we don't fire mortars or drop bombs in friendly cities -- we seek cooperation with local governments.It also reminds me that one of the smartest thing said about terrorism in recent years came in the form of a "gaffe" by John Kerry. "The war on terror is less of a military operation, and far more of an intelligence-gathering law enforcement operation," he said. This of course led to a bunch of Bush ads and a hearty round of media mockery. But Kerry was right, and we'd be far better off had we responded to 9/11 by judging it an attack by a fringe group of criminals rather than the beginning of an epic clash between the West and the East.
