John Stossel on Not Taking the Terrorists' Bait
"Do you have a strategy now, Mr. President?" asked the cover of the Daily News next to a photo of the second American journalist to be beheaded by the terrorist group ISIS. The impulse to "do something" to counter such evil is strong. But why do we assume that government doing something is always an improvement over government doing nothing?
We just don't know what our interventions will bring, writes John Stossel—nor do we have the best track record with intervening in the Middle East. Fighting these terrorist groups is like fighting Hydra, the monster from Greek mythology: Cut off one head, two more grow back. One of the terrorists' goals is to get us to overreact, and maybe it's time for America to stop taking the bait, Stossel argues. Islamic militants do monstrous things all over the world. We cannot stop it all.