Prime-Time Terrorism

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Lashing out at a target, almost any target, would serve at least one purpose. It would be cathartic. For a nation seemingly humiliated, for a people fed up with too much talk and too little action, dropping a bomb on Baalbek or shooting a few Shi'ite fanatics would be grimly satisfying. Yet for policymakers the ultimate goal must be not simply to avenge terrorism but to stop it. Doing nothing, it seems certain, invites more atrocities. Yet force often begets force. For Ronald Reagan, the hard question is whether retaliating against terrorists will deter terrorism -- or only provoke more of it.

FOOTNOTE: *The yellow ribbon was a symbol of longing for the return of the American hostages taken by Iran in 1979. It comes from Tony Orlando's 1973 hit pop tune, Tie a Yellow Ribbon (Round the Old Oak Tree), based on a story about the homecoming of a Civil War soldier from prison.