[leot]

I think, perhaps, that the problem with terrorism is that the distribution of terrorism event impacts is likely heavy-tailed -- i.e., the probability of one "black swan" event (nuclear, biological, chemical) is higher than a normal distribution model of event impacts would suggest.

But, to me, this means that the national security apparatus should be exclusively focused on reducing the probability of those most-terrible events, and instead leave the small-scale stuff to standard law enforcement. I.e., if the # of deaths is almost certainly < 200 (say), normal law enforcement procedures apply. If more than 500, then every resource can and should be brought to bear to prevent it.