What are the odds you're going to get murdered today? Are they higher or lower than they were yesterday, or last week, or ten years ago?
Say you make it through today, what about tomorrow? What are the odds you'll get killed tomorrow... and when I say killed, I don't mean falling in the shower, or run over by a drunk driver while crossing the street – I mean killed violently by another person?
Let's take the question down one level. What are the odds someone you love, care about or just know, will be slain today, tomorrow, or even during your entire lifetime ?
I figure the odds of any of those things happening to you or anyone you know range somewhere between slim and slimmer. And, despite the steady flow of fear mongering out of Washington, those odds have changed little, if any, over the last six years.
Since none of us likes to think about dying, we try not to. Which is why we need to force the issue every now and then. Otherwise the terrorists win. Which terrorists? Both kinds. The Islamically-poisoned ones that want you to live in fear, and our own mis-leaders in Washington, who have found it most useful to leverage terrorist threats to keep you living in fear.
If you took to heart every claim or threat made by these two groups on any given day, you'd never leave the house.
Al-Qaida keeps claiming that the attacks of 9/11 were the first of many to come. And that the next attacks will be even bigger.
To get itself re-elected in 2004, the Bush administration assured us they had al-Qaida on the run, that they were weaker than ever. This month the same folks, now under pressure because of it's disastrous war in Iraq, warned us that, “they're baaaaaaaaaaacccck.” That al-Qaida has regrouped and is stronger (and scarier) than ever.
Does al-Qaida and the Bush administration employ the same PR firm? Sure sounds like it. Al-Qaida says, “We're gonna get you.” The Bush administration says, “Al-Qaida is still trying to get you.” The only change today is that the administration has ginned up it's warnings, adding now that they just don't want to kill you but also “your children and grand children too.” (At this pace, can an al-Qaida threat to our family pets be far behind? Will they plant Dandelions in suburban lawns, return VHS tapes un-rewound, litter?)
I don't mean to trivialize all this. Certainly terrorism is real and terrorists hurt and kill real people somewhere on earth everyday. And I do not doubt for a second that killing Americans here is right at the top of their lunatic wish list.
All I am suggesting is that, before we decide how to respond to that threat, we assess precisely what it is terrorist and terrorism really threatens.
So here's my reality check.
1)What threat does Islamic terrorism pose to America? Even at it's most vicious and effective levels, could it overthrow our government, take control of our institutions, subjugate the people and impose its will on the nation? No. Not even close. The “best” Islamic terrorists can hope is to be very annoying. By blowing things up from time to time they can disrupt a few city blocks, kill X-number of innocent people and, in so doing, assure that the last thing the rest of Americans would want is a country run by murderous sociopaths like them.
2)How should we respond to terrorist threats and acts on US soil? The same way we respond to other potentially lethal threats – with some degree of proportionality. Lots of things kill Americans every year that we don't “declare war” on. For example:
Over the last 20 Years on Average: Americans killed each year in auto accidents 42,116 By the common flu 20,000 Murdered by common criminals 15,517
Food-borne diseases cause approximately 76 million illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations, and 5,000 deaths in the United States each year.
On 9/11 somewhere around 3000 innocent people were killed by terrorists. Since then only five people died on US soil tied to a terrorist-type attack (the Anthrax letters.) So, 3005 divided by six years gives us a rough average of 500 Americans a year dying at the hands of terrorists.
Stephen Pizzo has been published everywhere from The New York Times to Mother Jones magazine. His book, Inside Job: The Looting of America's Savings and Loans, was nominated for a Pulitzer.
Very well stated, Stephen. Your points are excellent, your writing clear and concise. I enjoyed this post.
Fear is and has always been a powerful weapon in politics, effective most for the party in power. Sowing fear for votes is a technique as old as democracy, but never so perfected as in recent years. Bringing fear to our doorsteps, and for the small price of a vote promising our safety, has become the modus operandi of American politics at every level, and no major political party is above ringing our doorbells to frighten us.
Fear, of course, is not the sole property of politicians and sadists. We live in a world of fear in part because, thanks to electronic media, we hear every hour on the hour all the things that are going wrong. Crowding for our obedient attention, our crisis-driven mass media is naturally drawn to compete in the business of fear.
Television, especially, invades our senses with up-to-the minute scenes of violence and terrorism – one atrocity overtaking another. It distorts reality in a way that seems designed to put us on edge, and diverts our anxieties from big risks toward smaller ones. Causing the public to develop an exaggerated sense of danger, television more than any other form of media leads us to believe we live in a frightening world in which we could be the next victim.
Since September 11th, our government has only added to our anxieties, by alternatively issuing color-coded warnings of unknowable events, then admonishing us to go about our daily lives. Told to keep our gaze fixed on approaching catastrophes, we’re left blind to the risks that really matter, such as our diminishing real wages and pensions, and our growing lack of health care. More Americans have died from lack of health care over the past five years than bin Laden could ever have dreamed of killing.
But it is the shameless and deliberate political manipulation of anger and fear that is perhaps the greatest threat to our well-being and that of our children and of our world. Look no further than the exploitation of our national hysteria over the attacks of September 11th to launch a pre-emptive war on a country that posed no real threat to us for what I pray will prove a never again seen example of the triumph of fear over collective rationality.
Fear works, let’s face it. Fear allows politicians to dupe their citizenry. Lest you doubt this, explain away the remarkably tenacious yet completely false belief, still held by half of Americans recently polled, that Iraq played a role in those attacks. That today’s politicians are so adept at stoking and then taking advantage of our fear is less a poor reflection on them and more on us.
Politicians know that fearful people do not want change. Fearful people are more easily manipulated by deceptively simple messages of right and might, and are more accepting of reductions in their liberties and their freedoms if their insecurities are promised to be relieved. Any first-year psychology major knows that the more frightened people are the more illogical becomes their reasoning.
Fear leads people to build and hide behind fortresses named safety and security. But this is not who we are. Americans are not by nature a fearful people. Nearly six years on from that awful morning we ought finally to consider how it is that we’ve become so, and how much damage our fear, which we renamed fury, has done to ourselves and in the world.
by
Todd Huffman, M.D. (80 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 109 comments)
on Thursday, July 19, 2007 at 1:09:15 PM
The terrorists who attack America and and American values are inside the White House. Al Qaeda and Ben laden are bogeyman for fearmongering. You know this and everybody knows this. So, stop fooling us and stop making a fool of yourself, please.
by
ramsheyi (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 521 comments)
on Thursday, July 19, 2007 at 8:12:32 PM
compare the number of casualties from terrorists here with the number Bush has killed in foreign wars -- not to mention the damage by gutting domestic programs.
by
Blue Pilgrim (0 articles, 3 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 997 comments)
on Thursday, July 19, 2007 at 11:34:06 PM
The Bush and bin Laden families were business partners via the Carlyle Group. Marvin Bush was involved in the company with the security contract for the World Trade Center. The members of PNAC called for a 'New Pearl Harbor.' No, those buildings didn't fall in a controlled demolition manner. We can follow Payne Stewart's plane, but can't intercept those hijacked on 9/11, Mr. Cheney? Yes, Peak Oil is here. There is not enough oil to go round, too little time to retool for another energy source in any economically feasible manner, and too many mouths to feed. And you wonder why none of our selected misrepresentatives are responsive to the demands of the people? Any more questions?
by
Susan Guest (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 80 comments)
on Friday, July 20, 2007 at 8:06:04 AM
4 comments
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