Do We Need Another Terrorist Attack?

ABC is reporting that Al Qaeda cells are already in the United States or on their way preparing for the next terrorist attack. Of course, no one wants another terrorist attack on American soil, but many conservatives are coming to the reluctant conclusion that, regretfully, another terrorist attack may be just what we need right now to wake the country up.

You could almost see former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum shake his head sadly as he told Hugh Hewitt on his radio show, "Between now and November, a lot of things are going to happen, and I believe that by this time next year, the American public's going to have a very different view of this war, and it will be because, I think, of some unfortunate events, that like we're seeing unfold in the UK." While a series of "unfortunate events" even worse than the ones in the Lemony Snicket books would certainly be unfortunate, it wouldn't be all bad news since people would start supporting the War in Iraq again. Sometimes, you just have to take the bad along with the good.

Another terrorist attack, terrible as that would be, would not just reverse the war's bad poll numbers, it would also help the President. "At the end of the day, I believe fully the president is doing the right thing, and I think all we need is some attacks on American soil like we had on [Sept. 11, 2001 ]," said the chairman of the Arkansas Republican Party, Dennis Milligan, last month, "and the naysayers will come around very quickly to appreciate not only the commitment for President Bush, but the sacrifice that has been made by men and women to protect this country." I don't think Mulligan is saying that he necessarily wants another terrorist attack, he's just saying that if there was one, there would at least be an upside.

And let's be frank, if there was another terrorist attack, it isn't likely to take place in Arkansas. Nor is it likely to happen Santa Clara, California, although I am sure they are grateful for the grant they got from Homeland Security to buy new Segway Scooters, or Outagamie, Wisconsin, where those brand new chemical suits might yet prove useful. Another terrorist attack is most likely to happen in New York or San Francisco or Los Angeles or Washington, DC, places where the people really could use a wake-up call.

Michael Fumento has an even better suggestion for the terrorists, if any are reading his column. Noting the regrettable lack of Muslim villains in Hollywood blockbusters, he writes, "A lot of people have suggested that, pathetically, it's going to take another terrorist attack to wake us from our slumber. Wouldn't it be fitting if it were in a movie theater?" Of course, he isn't one of those pathetic people who would suggest that we need another terrorist attack, but if we are going to have one anyway, a movie theater would be the perfect place especially since it would suit the terrorists' finely honed sense of irony. And while he is not exactly welcoming another terrorist attack, he thinks liberals would love one. As he tells Scott at World o' Crap in the comments to a post "I'll bet you all split a gut laughing when those Twin Towers fell." According to Fumento all of those liberal New Yorkers who screamed when the World Trade Center collapsed were actually screaming with laughter. Who knew?

In contrast to liberals' glee over the prospect of terrorist attacks in their hometowns, conservatives are all torn up about it, the way we are about wars that kill a lot of civilians and torture and other regrettable necessities. Unfortunately, there seems to be no other way of convincing people how wrong they were to vote for the Democrats and what a disaster it would be to leave Iraq. "The sick, twisted fact is within a year of a Democrat taking office, the terrorists will have the chance to launch another terrorist attack on US soil," says Alexander Cornswalled in an eloquent piece called "Democrats Are Part of the Enemy." "The people will see the error of turning to the Democrats, and the democratic party will be dead in the water for the next 20 years. I'm disgusted that it's going to take another terrorist attack on US soil to accomplish that, but the people are being mislead by false promises of peace and roses if we leave Iraq." Is there anything besides another terrorist attack that will convince voters how irrational they were to for Democrats?

But just any terrorist attack will not suffice. It's going to take a really big one. And a failed terrorist attack would be even worse than a successful one as Jonah Goldberg pointed out in reaction to the latest bombings in Great Britain. "Anyway, the irony is that from a policy standpoint, it seems to me that security officials have to view things like the failed London bombing as basically no different than a successful bombing," he wrote on The Corner. "But because the bombing failed, the policy options to security officials are far narrower precisely because the bombing failed and therefore didn't rouse the sort of political reaction it might otherwise have." So if we are going to have a terrorist attack, let's hope that it is a good one.

If it turns out that we are lucky and that despite Democrats winning the last election and diminishing support for the War in Iraq, we avoid a terrorist attack for now, that doesn't mean we are safe. As Rudy Giuliani has pointed out, voting for a Democrat for President practically guarantees another terrorist attack. Only by voting for a Republican, or even better, for him, can we avoid this likely scenario. "America will be safer with a Republican president," says Giuliani, who promises to bring us back to those halcyon days of September 11, 2001 when everyone was united behind the President, before Democrats stopped rubber-stamping everything he did. Remember how great that time was? Unless the American people wake up, it may take another September 11 to return us to those bygone days. Not that we want that to happen. Of course not. How could you even think such a thing?

Update: Michael Fumento (if, indeed, it is Michael Fumento) responds in the comments and I respond to his response.

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