The self-proclaimed civil liberties champions protesting the city’s police conducting random searches on the transit system would do well to have another read of the Fourth Amendment they’re now trumpeting. It forbids “unreasonable searches”. Well, we doubt the police commissioner, Raymond Kelly, has ever done anything unreasonable in his entire career, and the latest attacks on London’s transit system make extra safety precautions on our system very reasonable.

Defensive measures, however, are not enough to defeat the terrorists. This war needs to be taken to the terrorists’ home ground, a point clearly understood by President Bush. The offensive war needs to be escalated. Greater support – weapons, numbers, and funds – can be given to our troops in Kabul, Baghdad, and across the globe fighting the terrorists. And opponents of those totalitarian states – Syria, Iran, et al. – that fund, inspire, and provide refuge to terrorists, can be supported.

If these sentiments were echoed in the civil liberties unions and other liberal precincts, the caviling about the Fourth Amendment and the griping about the searches of bags on subways and other public transportation would have a context of credibility. Doing their utmost to support the troops is the best defense of these rights civil libertarians could ever offer. That would be reasonable.