Breivik had posted a 1,500 page screed on the web, partly copied from the manifesto of the American Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, that showcased the hidden workings of the mind of yet another extreme right wing, fundamentalist christian, delusional, conspiracy nut.
His methods of murder were from the playbook of Oklahoma City bomber, Timothy McVeigh, who also built his car bomb from fertilizer and oil. He also echoed the methods of Al Quaida, by using one murderous attack as cover for yet another.
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Consider the Norwegian tragedy from an American perspective. Norway is a nation of 4.9 million people. In contrast the 2010 census counted 305 million Americans, or 71.4 times as many. Multiply that last number by the 76 who died by bomb and gunfire in two places in Norway on 7/22 and you get 5,403.
Norway is feeling what we would feel if that many Americans had died at the hands of terrorists in a single day.
Slightly less died on 9/11 and at Pearl Harbor combined (5,379). If, like me, you were young at Pearl Harbor and still around for 9/11, you can begin to know the true dimensions of the shock that has rocked this most peaceful of countries.
As we did, the Norwegian nation is searching it collective soul for reasons, lessons and remedies. No doubt they are examining our responses to the attacks on the twin towers and the naval base as well as the Oklahoma City bombing and its striking parallels to their own still raw experience.
Some responses are automatic. Both Presidents Roosevelt and Bush ordered a formal inquiry and acted on the recommendations made.. Norway’s Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg is taking the same path. One certain finding is that intelligence was inadequate. Failures in gathering, assessing and communicating information about the enemy will be deemed the fault of intelligence community agencies. Otherwise, how could "this" have happened.
But Norway’s PM has also done something more courageous. He has rallied Norwegians, not to demand vengeance, but to preserve their open and trusting society: “The answer to violence is even more democracy. Even more humanity,” he said.
That there is a risk to just carrying on is obvious. Less obvious, but no less real, are the self inflected wounds that can follow hasty, intemperate actions fueled by fear and xenophobic thoughts of revenge.
Our history has often been sullied by such over reactions. After Pearl Harbor to our shame we rounded up American citizens of Japanese ancestry residing mostly in California and stuck them in barren relocation camps in the name of national security. Thieving neighbors were allowed to steal their property and the possessions they could not carry. Franklin Roosevelt approved the order and the Supreme Court upheld his right as Commander-In-Chief of the armed forces to issue it during time of war.
This of course was unnecessary as our belated apologies and meager restitution a half-century later made uncomfortably clear. In the then territory of Hawaii, where the wreckage of the Pacific fleet still smoldered , officials refused to follow California’s example with their own large Japanese American population. They picked up a few old men of known divided loyalty – mostly for their own safety -- and that was that.
From that act of courage, independent thinking and forbearance came more courage of the highest order. The 442 Regimental Combat Team, composed entirely of Japanese Americans primarily from Hawaii, came out of the European theater of World War II as the most highly decorated unit in U. S. military history. No sunshine soldiers these.
One the eve of the 10th anniversary of 9/11, when we will dedicate a towering memorial to the casualties of that dreadful day, we should also take stock of the self inflicted collateral damage that has since been done to our reputation and our liberties out of fear and in the name of dubious security.
The record is not pretty. The fallout from Abu Graib and Guantanamo Bay and those unnamed CIA interrogation camps dotted about the globe now illuminate our repute in the world’s eyes more brightly than the Lamp of Liberty in New York harbor.
No less ugly is what we did to ourselves. We traded away a measure of liberty and a lot of privacy in return for massive surveillance programs. Sure we have pounced on an occasional collection of would be terrorists who mostly talked to impress each other. And, yes, there has been no repeat of acts of terror anywhere close to the scale of 9/11. But, deep down, we know that what we have lost is more precious than the precarious safety we perhaps have gained.
Ben Franklin said it best: “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” He could have also added, "And they lack the courage to be free."
The Norwegians, not lacking in that courage, are on track to test this ancient sentiment of one of our wisest founders. We should follow their progress carefully. We might relearn something.
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