Terror in NYC: The Real Test Comes Tomorrow, Not Today

Joshua Geltzer wrote for Just Security on how the response from the United States' leaders is the critical piece in ensuring national resilience in the aftermath of the attack in Lower Manhattan on October 31:

New York City officials are already calling Tuesday’s awful attack in downtown Manhattan “an act of terror.”  Whether they are right remains to be seen; but, if so, the real test comes tomorrow, not today.  That is, today our first responders have been doing what they always do: selflessly and swiftly putting their own lives on the line to care for others.  But, tomorrow, our nation’s eyes must turn to the broader response by our leaders in Washington, and by President Trump in particular.  Terrorism is, at bottom, a strategy of provocation: It tries to get us to do to ourselves what fundamentally weaker adversaries—terrorists—cannot accomplish on their own.