Perspective

By Dave Anderson:

Let me steal most of a post on perspective from Thoreau.  He writes about the alleged Russian spy ring that was just broken up:

I can, however, note that these people were charged with crimes in a court of law. Now, charging people with crimes in an open court of law is perfectly fine if we�re merely talking about people accused of acting at the behest of a nuclear power with a global intelligence network, a navy and airforce, oil, natural resources with which they play politics with neighbors, and a $1.2 trillion GDP. Sure, they may have some resources behind them, but at least the threat is manageable. On the other hand, if we�re talking about a small network of guerrilla fighters whose leader lives in caves and whose fighters are armed with at best shoulder-mounted rocket launchers, well, you simply cannot charge them in an open court. The risks are far too great.

100 or fewer guys hiding in caves on the back-end of nowhere is not an existential threat. They should not be able to dictate American foreign and domestic policy unless we allow them to by collectively losing our shit together and refusing to get it back together.