Dumb, dumbest.(on the right)(Muslim extremists)

NEW YORK, APRIL 27

IN 1962 Michael Di Salle was running for governor of Ohio. It was a season in which U.S. officials were calling out an alarm against possible air attacks. Governor Rockefeller came close to writing into the New York State building code a requirement that new houses have bomb shelters, and he led the way by constructing a shelter in his own home. There was the problem of the huge expense of public bomb shelters. The Republican candidate in Ohio promised a $100 million program to provide these shelters if he was elected.

Democratic contender Di Salle, something of a humorist, announced his program for shelters which would cost the state a mere $5,000. He explained that he would construct two huge arrows at $2,500 each, visible high in the air. One, pointing northwest in neon lights, would be labeled DETROIT. The second, pointing west, would be labeled CHICAGO. Why would bombers pause over Cleveland?

That lesson in reductionist thought brings to mind the current impasse. It is vividly introduced by a headline in the New York Times: "MILITANTS IN EUROPE OPENLY CALL / FOR JIHAD AND THE RULE OF ISLAM." The dispatch speaks of young Arab militants, beginning with one group in Luton, England: "They say they would like to see ... Blair dead or deposed and an Islamic flag hanging outside No. 10 Downing Street."

These are not playboys of the kind who merely talk about terrorism. One knot of Muslim extremists, last March, was intercepted with 1,200 pounds of ammonium nitrate. Five of these Pakistani-Britons have been charged with trying to build a terrorist bomb.

The story quotes British authorities who say that laws to protect civil liberties have ...