Terrorists don't do movie plots.

I've said before that the whole idea of a "war" on terrorism is silly. Wars are fought by sovereign nations with armies. Terrorists don't do the same thing twice. They don't have "bases" to operate from, and there are no "front lines." Our homeland "security" department operates as if it's scared of the latest action movie, like closing public beaches after Jaws scared people. Then the terrorists just use a different tactic and make all the security "precautions" ineffective.

The problem with movie plot security is that it only works if we guess right. If we spend billions defending our subways, and the terrorists bomb a bus, we've wasted our money. To be sure, defending the subways makes commuting safer. But focusing on subways also has the effect of shifting attacks toward less-defended targets, and the result is that we're no safer overall.

Unfortunately for our democratic society, the money should be spent on intelligence operations to catch the people plotting the attacks, cutting off their funding and increasing our emergency preparedness. But that doesn't get votes.