From security expert Bruce Schneier:

The point of terrorism is to cause terror, sometimes to further a political goal and sometimes out of sheer hatred. The people terrorists kill are not the targets; they are collateral damage. And blowing up planes, trains, markets or buses is not the goal; those are just tactics. The real targets of terrorism are the rest of us: the billions of us who are not killed but are terrorized because of the killing. The real point of terrorism is not the act itself, but our reaction to the act.

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It’s time we calm down and fight terror with antiterror. This does not mean that we simply roll over and accept terrorism. There are things our government can and should do to fight terrorism, most of them involving intelligence and investigation — and not focusing on specific plots.

It’s a good essay on the current state of terror. Surely people can see that this makes sense. Why can’t the people “leading” us, and I use that term loosely, seem to grasp this? It’s called terrorism for reason. Blowing up or just threatening to blow up a few planes or buses is not the ends, it’s only the means. Stop making us pour our water out. Stop making us not bring hair gel. Stop with the kneekjerk reactions and use your heads for once.