Here's my dilema: I believe that once we start giving up basic freedoms in the name of security, we are on the road to totalitarianism. At the same time, I don't want these extremeists running around loose to wreak havoc on my country. At the same time, I know it's pointless to randomly pull businessmen and little old ladies out of the security line for searches, all to avoid offending the Muslim community. Maybe the Muslim community should be offended that these fanatics are committing these atrocities in the name of Allah. Read Jacob Sullum's editorial "List Price" and then ask yourself why the Council on American-Islam Relations has not been charged under the State Department's List of Designated Foreign Terrorist Orginaizations for providing aid and training to terrorists. Granted, the law is wrong when it comes to stifling free speech, but they've not even attempted to apply it in this instance. It wouldn't be "politically correct". I seem to remember reading that in the old Soviet Union, every town, collective farm, military base, and factory had a "political officer" whose job it was to make sure everyone within said orginization was politically correct. Makes you think, doesn't it?

Ms Malkin, one day I would love to meet you so my wife and I might buy you a root beer and thank you for the many excellent columns you have written over the years. Including this one. You are truly an American patriot and a warrior of the finest distinction.

Brian, I share your concerns over liberties vis-a-vis security. I recall the American Conservative Union's paper criticizing the Patriot Act a couple of years ago. The article raised valid objections (as opposed to the self-serving, disingenuous objections from the Left), most notably the cautionary observation that "the provisions of the Patriot Act are being used benignly today, but the good guys won't always be in charge. Sometimes the Democrats will win, and they could then use the PA against us and other American citizens."

Good point. The whole genie out of the bottle problem.

OTOH, I have no sympathy whatsoever for the objections by Muslims and Muslim groups. No need to go into detail on CAIR and other terror front-groups operating here; I'm sure you are as aware of their activities as I am. So when they complain, it's obviously self-serving and designed to weaken our security measures the way termites weaken wooden beams.

I'd be a lot more sympathetic toward Muslims in America if they'd get out in the streets and protest when an attack is carried out in their names. In the last year or two we're starting to see a bit of that, but not nearly enough. They sure didn't have any problem protesting a Dutch cartoon, so we know they CAN do it when they want to. They make noises about not supporting terrorism, but when terrorism occurs they don't do nearly enough to condemn it. Moreover, we keep catching them funding these camps and training programs, and the American Muslim community does not do enough to counter that either. I'd have a lot more confidence in them if they'd turn in more cells instead of looking the other way.

I don't have any problem with profiling in the case of terrorism. This Politically Correct nonsense is getting innocent Americans killed, and I think it's deliberate. Notice, the more Americans are killed the more stern the admonishments get that we mustn't "overreact" to "isolated incidents." It's insane.

I agree with you that these Muslims who are known to be acting in ways that establish a pattern of pro-terrorism support should be arrested immediately. Then either held at Gitmo or deported. I favor the former since deporting them just lets them continue their activities elsewhere. I don't accept the argument that this violates the Constitution, since they're not American citizens. In those cases where suspects actually ARE citizens, we must treat them as we would treat any other American. But there's no reason to extend Constitutional protections to people who aren't citizens and whose actions actively seek to destroy the very Constitution that would protect them.

Political Correctness is getting us killed. We must demand LOUDLY from our government an answer to the question: how many more innocent Americans must die before we reject the foolish doctrine of Political Correctness?

I ahve been adamantly anti-political correctness, as well as anti-global warming, for at least 20 years. The most annoying thing, to me at least, is that the persons protesting the loudest against profiling aren't even Muslims. It's like there is a collective feeling of guilt amongst Caucasian-Americans. I do not feel guilty about slavery, as no one in my family owned slaves. I do not feel guilty about profiling Muslims, because no one in my family ever hijacked an airliner and crashed it into a building. But most of all, I don't feel guilty about profiling, because the profile is generally right. Even Muslims that are not active in terrorsim cells seem to be sypatheticd towards those that are, and in my book that puts them on the wrong team. We are at war, and the purpose of war is to destroy the enemy, and remove his ability to wage war. If the enemy is waging war by hijacking airliners, then anyone associated with said enemy should be prevented from boarding an airliner bound for the United States. We would not have let Himmler fly to the US unsupervised during WWII, so what's the big deal? Besides, the Muslim extremists are doing the exact same thing the Christians did during the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition. It was wrong then, and Christians are supposed to feel guilty about it, but the Muslims are justified because they've been discrimminated against for so many years? Really? It all boils down to power and control. The Mullahs want the power to control everyone's lives. The Democrats want the power to control everyone's lives. So did Hitler, Stalin, Mao Tse Tsung, Pol Pot, Khomeni, the list goes on and on.