August 10, 2006 | By Nathaniel Ward

We’re still at war

British police have thwarted a catastrophic terrorist attack that would have destroyed several aircraft in midair on their way from London to the United States. In a series of raids following a months-long undercover operation, the police arrested 21 men connected with the plot.

“The ‘Long War’ is clearly far from over,” Heritage terrorism expert Peter Brookes wrote on National Review Online. “We have two enemies in the war on terror: al Qaeda and complacency.” He added that today’s events prove al Qaeda to be a formidable ideological threat, one which can adapt its methods to new security measures—and one which may seek to strike again around the fifth anniversary of 9/11.

Reports indicate that the terrorists sought to smuggle liquid explosives onto airplanes and assemble the devices in midair. Authorities in both Britain and the United States have temporarily banned the carrying of most liquids onto aircraft.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who raised the terrorist threat level to its maximum of “severe” for flights from the UK, said the planned attack is “suggestive of an al-Qaida plot.”

London police Deputy Commissioner Paul Stephenson said his officers “have disrupted a plan by terrorists to cause untold death and destruction.” The attack, he continued, “was intended to be mass murder on an unimaginable scale.” Meanwhile, British Home Secretary John Reid reminded us of the threat posed by radical terrorists: “We are probably in the most sustained period of severe threat since the end of World War II.”

This is a chilling reminder that the war on terrorism is not over. We must hold firm against countries like Iran whose governments use terrorism as an instrument of policy, and we cannot allow terrorist groups free reign by retreating from Iraq. Here at home, we must enact reforms that will make us truly safer, like replacing the bureaucratic Transportation Security Administration with more effective private security agencies.

The trans-Atlantic alliance

The foiling of the plot this morning clearly demonstrates the importance of America’s “Special Relationship” with Great Britain to the war on terror. As British Shadow Defense Minister Liam Fox said at Heritage in April, “Britain is America’s most reliable and effective ally.”

It is precisely because the “Special Relationship” is so important that Heritage established The Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom last year with the blessings and support of Lady Thatcher. Among the Thatcher Center’s chief missions is the strengthening of this crucial alliance, which is needed now more than ever.

Heritage wants your take on the issues

This being an election year, the divides between conservatives and liberals are becoming clearer and more defined. The left is certainly doing its part to make this difference clear, picking radical anti-war liberals to run for Congress.

The liberal extremists have made it very clear where they stand on the issues. So it’s important that conservatives make their voices heard as well.

Heritage is conducting a survey of conservatives about the issues that matter most in this election year: the war on terrorism, immigration, energy, family, the courts.

• Take The Heritage Foundation’s election-year survey!

Many of you have already taken the survey, and the results show a solid commitment to conservative principles. If you have already submitted your answers, encourage your conservative friends and family members to make their voices heard. And if you haven’t taken the survey yet, I encourage you to take it now.

• Take the survey
• Pass the survey along to conservative family and colleagues

By asking your friends and family to take the survey, you can help Heritage demonstrate to candidates of all parties the importance of conservative ideas in America today.

Time for a flat tax

Now may be the time to enact serious tax reform, Heritage President Ed Feulner writes in The Chicago Sun-Times. Since the 1986 tax reform, he explains, “lawmakers have made some 14,000 changes to the tax code—again making it ridiculously complex.” But even liberals like Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) agree with conservatives that this has gone on far enough, and he has joined the growing consensus for a simpler tax code.

He continues:

This is where conservatives and liberals ought to be able to find common ground. We should be able to agree that the tax code has one purpose: funding the federal government. There's no reason for Washington to use it to reward certain types of behavior, such as driving a hybrid car, installing energy-efficient windows or buying a home. . . .

So what should the federal tax code look like? Reform will be effective only if it makes the code flat and fair.

How divorce affects women

Divorce, as I noted last time, has contributed to the breakdown of America’s families, and substantial data indicates that divorce wreaks havoc on the lives of children.

New data collected by Heritage’s FamilyFacts.org reveals that divorce has powerful negative consequences for women as well: “At 16 to 18 months after divorce, 42.5 percent of custodial mothers not receiving child support lived in poverty, as did 35.4 percent of those receiving child support. In contrast, 10.5 percent of the non-custodial fathers (whether paying child support or not) lived in poverty.”

Survey redux

• Have you taken the election-year survey yet?
• Have you e-mailed it to your friends, family and co-workers?

In other news

• Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has announced a new plan to reform the nation’s immigration courts, which handle hundreds of thousands of cases a year. The Justice Department will hire additional judges and conduct periodic reviews of their performance.
• A new survey suggests that children are becoming more adept at avoiding online sexual predators. But that doesn’t mean parents should stop supervising their children’s online activities; parental involvement remains vitally important.
• West Virginia’s Marshall University has decided to open a class on “African American Student Issues” to students of all races, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education reports. The school had previously admitted only black students. (Via Eugene Volokh.)
• Despite a three-month cease-fire, fighting still continues in the Darfur region of Sudan. In fact, the United Nations reports that fighting has grown more intense since the truce was declared.

Coming up at Heritage

To attend these or any other Heritage Foundation events, RSVP at Heritage’s events website. Or you can watch these events live online at Heritage.org. All times are Eastern.

• On Wednesday, August 16 at 11:00am, The Heritage Foundation will host an event with The Federalist Society on the punishment of businesses for the crimes of their employees.
• On Thursday, August 17 at noon, Shmuel Bar, Director of Studies at Israel’s Institute for Policy and Strategy, will discuss the close ties between politics and religion in the Muslim world.

Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation.

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