Should you bow down to terrorism?

At his excellent blog Informed Comment (at http://www.juancole.com/), Juan Cole wrote something really interesting. In the course of a lengthy post about Bin Laden, Ariel Sharon, et al, Cole wrote (and I encourage you to check out the original)...

If what Sharon is doing were the right thing, morally and politically, then he should do it anyway and we'll just soldier on against the terrorists. But it is wrong in the first place, wrong morally, and wrong in international law and an insult to the United States in completely departing from the roadmap.

When I read this, I had what is known as a "moment of clarity" (sharing such moments is what this blog is about).

If we are doing the right thing, and other people oppose it and are willing to use terrorism to stop it, then we should keep doing it and fight on against the terrorists.

But if we are doing the WRONG thing to start with, and terrorists attack us for it, then we perhaps should NOT say "we will never bow down to terrorism". Perhaps we should say "you know, those terrorists have a point, and they are making it the only way they can."