Editorial: Protection must not weaken liberty

The United States, from its First Citizen to the folk of small town America, have between them an awful resolve: a price will be paid by those who thrust lances into its heart. Whether they seek justice, vengeance or apocalyptic retribution, their determination to see the perpetrators tracked down and punished is universal.

After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto said: "I fear we have only awakened a sleeping giant, and his reaction will be terrible."

Americans have no other reference point for the barbarity they have now experienced and it will produce a powerful unity. This is not a time for turning the other cheek. Even the most gentle and forgiving of souls has been brutalised by the appalling images that have been etched into the national psyche.

It is that sense of outrage that also has gathered about the United States a host of nations who have pledged to assist in furthering the resolve. A global collective is forming that will ensure the offenders have no hiding place.

More significantly, however, the coalition will declare war on terrorism wherever it exists. It will be led by an implacable American demand for measures that, if nothing else, protect its shores.

Few would argue with such a declaration of war on terror but the world must accept that to succeed in the fight we all will pay a price. That price will be paid in a precious currency - freedom.

If the globe is to be made a safer place - one rid of the random, fanatical actions of the sort that tore New York and Washington on Wednesday - our ability to travel freely, to move money and goods at will, and the right to free association without scrutiny may be constrained.

Terrorism is like an odourless and colourless gas, undetected until its poison reaches the nervous system. There is no obvious threat to safety. There are no warnings that it is about to strike down its victims. Against the unseen there can be only one defence - an impenetrable barrier. Yet a modern world cannot exist as a series of medieval walled cities. The barriers these days must be more sophisticated.

They will take the form of a vast increase in security surveillance, not only in the United States but in every country that has regard for the safety of its citizens and its bona fide visitors. Air travel as a result will become a more protracted affair with check-in times extended out to accommodate more stringent checking processes. The international movement of goods may be subjected to similar delays. And the security net will not end there. Every legitimate Government will be alive to the possibility that, within its nation's borders, there is the potential for terrorist organisations to establish cells.

Terrorism is international. It may act in the name of fanatical nationalism or perverted faith but it operates through distributed networks. The intelligence systems that once focused on Cold War issues had already had their attention shifted to such threats but the events in New York, Washington and Pittsburgh will result in a quantum leap in the level of activity.

It will not be limited to tracking bearded Afghani men from country to country. Administrations may well be so sensitive to internal security that their monitoring of "radical" groups of all shapes and sizes increases. It is in their zeal to eradicate terrorism that they may proscribe some of the freedoms that citizens enjoy. In doing so they must balance protection against liberty.

For its part the community must ensure that political leaders are told where the appropriate boundaries lie. For there is a real risk that, in the aftermath of this week, democracy will be diminished.

Full coverage: Terror in America

Pictures: Day 1 | Day 2

Brooklyn Bridge live webcam

Video

The fatal flights

Emergency telephone numbers for friends and family of victims and survivors

United Airlines: 0168 1800 932 8555

American Airlines: 0168 1800 245 0999

NZ Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade: 0800 872 111

US Embassy in Wellington (recorded info): 04 472 2068

Victims and survivors

Air New Zealand announcements

Air NZ flight information: 0800 737 000