The worst security failure in American history - or was it?

If it was malice, that's bad. If it was incompetence, that's worse.

As the Beer Gut Putsch (a name stolen from a Reddit thread, which I plan to use for the foreseeable future) engulfed the US Capitol on Wednesday, Allahpundit compared it to the 9/11 attacks. The death toll, thankfully, was much lower - but the symbolism, if anything, was much worse.

I saw someone on Twitter call this the worst terrorist attack in American history. That sentiment is hard to endorse because there’s no body count (yet); no skyscrapers have fallen, there’s barely any damage to the Capitol as far as I’m aware. But it is terrorism. It’s an attempt to intimidate the government of the United States into changing its policies by using violence. And the fact that the terrorists succeeded in capturing the seat of government, however briefly, makes it a singular humiliation in the country’s history — at least since the War of 1812, when the White House was torched. It’s not the “worst” attack if we’re measuring by deaths but it is arguably if we’re measuring by destabilizing inte…