August 11, 2006 10:25AM # Reaction vs. Response By [Jim Harper](https://www.cato.org/people/jim-harper) --- SHARE See if you can pick out which statement below represents *reaction* to yeterday’s news of the foiled terror plot, and which statements represent *response* to the strategy of terrorism. - “This country is safer than it was prior to 9/11.” — President George W. Bush, 8/11/06, quoted in the *Washington Post Express*. - “We cannot afford no security, but we cannot afford total security, because … absolute security could come only at the expense of grounding all the planes and really undermining our way of life. And that would, of course, be a defeat for America.” — Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, 8/11/06, *The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer* - “Everything that can be done to protect \[travelers\] is being done.” — Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, 8/11/06, quoted in the *Washington Post Express* As Ohio State University national security expert John Mueller points out in his brilliant *Regulation* article, [A False Sense of Insecurity](https://www.cato.org/pubs/regulation/regv27n3/v27n3-5.pdf), “The costs of terrorism very often are the result of hasty, ill-considered, and overwrought reactions.” By communicating messages of confidence, control, and resolve, two of three top administration officials have done a good job of responding to news of the foiled terror plots. The third has unwittingly played into the terrorism strategy. ##### Related Tags [Defense and Foreign Policy](https://www.cato.org/defense-foreign-policy), [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).