"Terrorism" might well be the word one encounters most in the international media. The reaction to recent incidents has been hysterical coupled with demands for an apocalyptic violent response. At this point with the old year ending and the new one about to begin, it would perhaps be fruitful to examine both the reality of terror and an appropriate reaction to whatever transnational threats might be regarded as genuine.

One of America's founding fathers Benjamin Franklin once observed that those who would trade their liberty for security will wind up with neither. Franklin understood that once freedoms are bartered away they will never return while complete security is a fiction, an unobtainable objective that will inevitably only be pursued by increasing the unaccountable powers of the police and government.