How Do You Think We Catch the Bad Guys?

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So now we know. What we already knew, to explain the absence of a second 9/11, was the offense part, not the defense. We knew about the war in Afghanistan, which had scattered al-Qaeda and degraded its capacities. We knew about the war in Iraq, which has become a magnet worldwide for jihadists, diverting energy to that front from the American front. But the defensive part, gathering critical preventive intelligence through all kinds of techniques--savory, unsavory, high tech and clandestine--had not been known.

Now we know. In this light, let's have the debate. Have we gone too far? Do we want to back off? It is interesting that the Democrats, who have been braying about presidential arrogance, law breaking and even possible impeachment over the NSA spying, dare not suggest that the program be abolished.

Why? Because, according to a Rasmussen poll, 64% of Americans, a free and very sensible people, support eavesdropping on calls between suspected terrorists abroad and people in the U.S. Because even Democrats know that the once clandestine activities they denounce so floridly are the once obscure answer to the question everyone has been asking: How did Bush keep us safe?