IT’S A GRAY AREA:

What are the goals of terrorism?

To break down the rule of law into tyranny — usually controlled by an absolutism as espoused by a particular form of radical religious or political doctrine.

To have this absolutism take control of governments.

To stifle free dissent against and even discussion about the views and tenets of this absolutist doctrine.

What are the methods of terrorism?

Employ fear as a tactic by using random violence against government institutions and civilians.

Act so as to cause the concern of the general population for security to be elevated above the concern for freedom.

Polarize the opponents of the absolutist doctrine into camps that are hostile to and intolerant of each other.

Who are the enablers of terrorism?

Those who deprive others of the protections of the rule of law for reasons of “security” or fear.

Those who hide behind “reasons of security” to conceal their own actions and manipulate the prosecution of terrorism to obtain personal advantage.

Those who label dissenters to the elevation of concerns for security over the concept of freedom as unpatriotic or even terrorists themselves.

Apply these realities to the world as you now see it, and determine how well the goals of terrorism are being promoted, and by whom.

What are the realities of terrorism?

The best defense against terrorism is accurate and timely intelligence. Otherwise combating terrorism is a police matter — a critically important one, but a police matter just the same. No special additional laws were required even after the horror of 9/11 to combat terrorism anymore than they would be required to combat violent bank robbers, kidnappers or rapists. The law already has in place appropriate responses for situations involving “ticking time bombs” or involving threats of immediate peril.

But no matter how we prepare or what shortcuts we take with our civil liberties, sometime and someplace there will be another successful terrorist attack. We cannot guarantee that bad things will not happen. We must be vigilant and do our best to prepare, but we also must do our best to emulate the British during the Battle of Britain when death and destruction rained upon them daily from German bombers.

They did their best to prepare and to be safe, and then went along with their daily lives. Today we are hundreds of times more likely to be killed by cigarette smoke than to be killed by terrorists, so we should keep some perspective on the issue. And we should also realize that once we relinquish our treasured civil liberties to the government, we almost never get them back.

JAMES P. GRAY is an Orange County Superior Court judge and author of the book, “Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed and What We Can Do About It — A Judicial Indictment Of The War On Drugs.” He can be reached at jimpgray@sbcglobal.net or at his blog site at www.judgejimgray.com.