An excellent sentence to ponder

From Doyle McManus at the Los Angeles Times:

Californians know what to do in an earthquake, and Kansans know what to do in a tornado, but the U.S. as a whole is prepared only to overreact to even a small act of terrorism.

Here is the point he's trying to make and I couldn't agree more:

Terrorists aim to damage their opponents partly by provoking reactions bigger than the original attack. Osama bin Laden spent less than half a million dollars on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington, but he caused billions in damage by prompting a shutdown of financial markets, air travel and other chunks of the U.S. economy -- not to mention the war in Afghanistan and the other counterterrorist campaigns that ensued.

But if a society is prepared for terrorist attacks, makes sure its citizens know how to react when they happen, and protects its transportation, communications and utilities networks from being paralyzed by local disruptions, the impact of terrorism is reduced. It's still a problem, but it's no longer an existential threat.

"As a practical matter we should be far better prepared for these events and make them far less disastrous," says Stephen E. Flynn, a former Coast Guard counterterrorism expert who now runs a think tank called the Center for National Policy.

We can't control everything, Flynn notes, but "we are in control of how we react."