The Foiled London Plot

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We’d planned a Duke Ellington at Newport fifty years later show for tonight, but twenty-one suspected would-be terrorists (along with the London police) changed the subject. Now we’re wondering: is the foiled London plot a victory for warring on terror? Or policing it? What does today’s news tell us about how far we’ve come — or haven’t — in the nearly five years since September 11, 2001?

And, shampoo aside, who was actually surprised by today’s news? Have we all basically come to grips with the fact that there will be more attacks — foiled and not — in the coming years and decades? Where’s the line between defeatism and reality?

Steve Clemons

Director of the American Strategy Program, New America Foundation

Blogger, The Washington Note

James Der Derian

Director of the

Info Tech War Peace Project at The Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University

Author of Virtuous War: Mapping the Military-Industrial-Media-Entertainment Network

Paul R. Pillar

Formerly of the CIA

Author, Terrorism and U.S. Foreign Policy

Visiting Professor, Center for Peace and Security Studies, Georgetown University