Washington's Non-Terror Alert

What did Islamist terrorists learn from today's panicked evacuation of the US Capitol and White House after a tiny private aircraft penetrated restricted air space over the Capital District?

1. That the US cowers in terror of another attack, a decidedly un-superpowerlike posture for the world's wealthiest and most powerful nation.

2. US security is so lousy that an unidentified aircraft will be permitted to come within three miles (less than two minutes flying time) of the nation's most important political centers without being stopped.

Today's event had nothing to do with Islamist terror and everything to do with incompetent flying and too-lenient enforcement of the restricted air space. But it was the best public relations gain for Islamist terrorist in three years. Every tourist in Washington learned this afternoon that America is a country under siege from Islamists -- a country that cannot protect even its own political inner sanctum. That is the impression they will take home with them, especially the foreign tourists. Worse, the terrorists now know that, even though the US can quickly scramble warplanes, those planes will not fire on the target until it is already over the capital district and almost on top of the White House. This is no way to enforce "restricted airspace" and no way to run a superpower.

Of course, the US would have little to fear if it controlled its borders and designed its immigration policy to benefit the nation and not the immigrants ... but no one in Washington seems interested in sensible policies.