Continuing in his Searlean theme, David Jilk sent me this amazing essay by John Searle on the proper response to 9/11. Although a date isn’t noted, based on the text it must seems to have been written sometime in the few days between our initial attack of Afghanistan and the fall of the Taliban.

My delight in reading this passage from the Berkeley professor of philosophy was dampened only the sheer ugliness of the truth identified:

We need to give up on the illusion that there is some policy change on our part that will change the attitude of the terrorists. Short of all of us converting to an extreme version of fundamentalist Islam and driving all the Israelis into the sea, there is no policy change that will alter their determination to kill us. The policy changes that are urged on us — stop the bombing, use the United Nations, etc. — might peel off some of their moderate supporters but will not weaken the resolve of the terrorists.

As an admirer of Searle’s work in philosophy of mind, it’s a particular and unusual pleasure to agree with him on international politics.