Terrorism is like driving a car

Dutch minister for administrative renewal' Pechtold compares living in Holland to driving a car: "In traffic we accept risks every day, why don't we do that with regards to terrorism?".

It is simply horrifying that a senior government official is allowed to expose his insanity without immediately getting medicated and locked up. But really, all he does is suggest a course of action which has been decided upon a very long time ago.

Because in fact, this is exactly how the West deals with terrorism. We fight cancer harder than we do the root cause of terrorism, and we know a lot more about the terrorists than we do about cancer.

According to Pechtold, we should treat terrorist attacks like lightning strikes: They happen, they can't be foreseen, and we just have to accept that every once in a while, someone gets killed. They are random events with sometimes tragic consequences, acts of God really (pun intended), and there's no point in asking why, trying to prevent them or fighting them.

As far as lightning is concerned, this is probably correct.

But terrorists can be killed. Preferably before they attack. And their sponsors and controllers can be killed as well.

I am all for accepting things we can't change. But the most important part of that old cliche is "The wisdom to know the difference" (between things that can and cannot be changed).

I guess I should know better than to expect that level of wisdom from a cabinet minister