Best Defense

Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

The Paris attack: One way to respond

I think every decent newspaper, website and magazine in the world should commission and run a new cartoon or satirical piece on Al Qaeda.

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I think every decent newspaper, website and magazine in the world should commission and run a new cartoon or satirical piece on Al Qaeda.

I think every decent newspaper, website and magazine in the world should commission and run a new cartoon or satirical piece on Al Qaeda.

The Paris attack really got to me, hit me like a physical blow. I teared up when I read about it. That may be partly because I’ve been thinking lately about some journalistic colleagues who died before their time, such as Daniel Pearl and Anthony Shadid. But also because this attack aims directly at what makes the modern West work, the belief that a society works best when dissident views are protected.

Philippe Dupeyrat/AFP/Getty Images

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military from 1991 to 2008 for the Wall Street Journal and then the Washington Post. He can be reached at ricksblogcomment@gmail.com. Twitter: @tomricks1

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