You Don't Get A Free Ride

I was over reading Doc Alterman's blog and came across Siva Vaidhyanathan's post regarding the recent terrorism over in London. Blah, blah, we've heard it all before...or have we?

"Any country that is going to march around the world with guns (or checkbooks) drawn has got to expect someone to bring the fight home these days. Weapons are small and cheap. People, money, and propaganda move freely. And there is really nothing a powerful country can do to ensure that every subway, federal office building, school, bridge, or tunnel will be safe. There are violent extremists everywhere. If we are going to do some stuff in the world, we are going to have to expect stuff to blow up here at home. And a world in which powerful nations do nothing is simply not realistic nor desirable. No president or prime minister is going to admit that to you, of course. Which is why we need the occasional poet, priest, or professor to say it."

Is this such a hard concept for our non-conservative, Republican brethren on the other side of American life to understand? Let me put it a different way, perhaps one that doesn't deal with such abstractions.

If you shit on your neighbors lawn, chances are he's going to come shit on yours, or even worse, leave his shit in a burning bag on your doorstep just after he rang the bell.