ABSTRACT
If the democracies are to defend themselves against the rising tide of terrorism, our publics must be brought to a clearer understanding of what we are up against — all the more because modern terrorism’s target is precisely the public itself, not merely selected individuals. By victimizing innocents, the terrorist seeks to seize attention, to disorient and intimidate the public, shattering its sense of security, and thereby destabilizing democratic governments and institutions. The class genocide now underway in Indochina, to which hundreds of thousands of refugees are testament, is but the most blatant expression of a doctrine firmly embedded in the totalitarian state, no matter how conservative or duly bureaucratic it is alleged to have become. Democratic governments must develop specific and precisely targeted weapons to counter terrorism, while preserving the libertarian features of our societies that make them worth defending.
