RIGHT SPEAK: If the Saudis Can Build One, WHY CAN'T WE?

To keep out Islamic State terrorists, the Saudis are building a 600-mile-long barrier — complete with five layers of fencing, underground movement censors and radar cameras — on their northern border. If they can do it ...

Good fences, it is said, make for good neighbors, which on a grand scale was the intent of the Great Wall of China in antiquity and the Israeli fences of more recent vintage. Both were designed to keep out intruders and to make sure all guests were invited guests. Unlike the Berlin Wall, they were built to keep hostiles out, not citizens in.

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As the threat of IS terrorism grew in Iraq and Syria, Saudi Arabia decided it might be a good idea to put such a barrier between its citizens and those who might want to kill them. Last September, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud initiated construction of a multilayered barrier that eventually will stretch along the entire Iraqi border from Kuwait to Jordan.

Earlier this month, Saudi prudence seemed vindicated by a suicide bombing and gun attack that killed two Saudi border guards and their commanding officer right next to Iraq's Anbar province. Saudi oil fields might make a tempting IS target. The group has also said its eventual goal is to take over the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina.