Oderint, dum metuant

I couldn't agree more with this post on Armed and Dangerous. Our war on terrorism isn't as much about “killing the bad guys” as it is showing the little men in orgs like Al-Qaeda that there are consequences for their actions.

The article on AnD cites Caligula as the originator of the phrase and concept, but several cultures have seen the effective nature of fear--the Yakuza and the American/Italian mob come to mind.

For the record, I'm anti-to-apathetic political-wise and don't mean this as a political statement, nor do I care to turn it into a debate about the war, our continued presence in Iraq, the Bush administration, or anything else. I just found it interesting enough to post about.