I wasn't trying to imply this at all - of course the government can destroy companies.
What I was implying is that, given the past few years of heightened public awareness of domestic government programs and efforts, perhaps this time public pressure would be exerted on the government to lay off the issue. Apple is one of the most loved companies in the country, people would be very interested in knowing why it's suddenly being torn down.
A company like Apple, which is practically an icon of "everything America still gets right," would be a very politically dangerous target to go after.
People would want to know why their favorite company was drawing a hard line, hopefully lead to a more educated debate.
We couldn't possibly expect this to take place as it would imply huge fallout for Apple. The only real course of action is to keep up the public debate in a loud way.
Then they'll be subject to additional penalties, seizure of property, etc., and quite possibly shareholder lawsuits stemming from the decision to incur those losses.
> Sure the gov't can make arrests, threats, seize assets -- but in the end, the gov't still don't get what they want
Maybe, given the recent discussion of mandatory limits on encrypted communication services without up-front backdoors, what the government wants is a clear demonstration that the operation of those services interferes with evidence and intelligence gathering in terrorism cases to build the case for new laws restricting the operations of such services.