Each new attack, each new convulsion of fear, horror, grief and anger is a progressively greater test of enlightened civilization’s commitment to its core values.
But whoever struck the blow, whatever its malevolent purpose or toll, the response cannot be to abandon the respect for human rights, equality, reason and tolerance that is the aspiration of all democratic cultures. Though it has become almost a cliché to argue that the goal of terrorists is to bring their victims down to their moral level, it is also a truth, and it must be reaffirmed after every attack.
That is not to say that political leaders should take no action. Mr. Valls and President François Hollande cannot be faulted for assuming in the immediate aftermath of so vicious an attack on so exalted a day that it had been an act of terrorism, nor for extending the state of emergency — a measure giving the police extraordinary powers to search and detain suspected terrorists — for three more months. Only hours before the slaughter, Mr. Hollande had made clear that a state of emergency could not become the normal state of affairs: “That would be saying that we are no longer a republic with law that is applicable in all circumstances,” he declared.
That is what the French prime minister, Manuel Valls, did in the wake of the assault.
Warning France that it had to learn to live with terrorism, he declared that the only dignified response was for the French to remain faithful to the spirit of July 14, “which means a France brought together and united around its values.”
As Mr. Valls and many others have warned, there will be more terrorist attacks. More innocent lives will be lost. There is no way that the police can track every vengeance-seeking potential killer or neutralize every weapon as commonplace as a truck. What threatened nations and their leaders can do is to firmly instill the idea that the only sure defense is to stay true to what democratic societies really stand for.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/16/opinion/our-best-defense-against-terrorists.html?ref=opinion
( redacted)
But whoever struck the blow, whatever its malevolent purpose or toll, the response cannot be to abandon the respect for human rights, equality, reason and tolerance that is the aspiration of all democratic cultures. Though it has become almost a cliché to argue that the goal of terrorists is to bring their victims down to their moral level, it is also a truth, and it must be reaffirmed after every attack.
That is not to say that political leaders should take no action. Mr. Valls and President François Hollande cannot be faulted for assuming in the immediate aftermath of so vicious an attack on so exalted a day that it had been an act of terrorism, nor for extending the state of emergency — a measure giving the police extraordinary powers to search and detain suspected terrorists — for three more months. Only hours before the slaughter, Mr. Hollande had made clear that a state of emergency could not become the normal state of affairs: “That would be saying that we are no longer a republic with law that is applicable in all circumstances,” he declared.
That is what the French prime minister, Manuel Valls, did in the wake of the assault.
Warning France that it had to learn to live with terrorism, he declared that the only dignified response was for the French to remain faithful to the spirit of July 14, “which means a France brought together and united around its values.”
As Mr. Valls and many others have warned, there will be more terrorist attacks. More innocent lives will be lost. There is no way that the police can track every vengeance-seeking potential killer or neutralize every weapon as commonplace as a truck. What threatened nations and their leaders can do is to firmly instill the idea that the only sure defense is to stay true to what democratic societies really stand for.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/16/opinion/our-best-defense-against-terrorists.html?ref=opinion
( redacted)
