Tuesday, August 08, 2006

The terroritsts have won.

And your government is helping. This article provides a PDF link that you should download and read. The threat of terrorism is no more real than Reagan's Evil Empire, and lightning and peanuts kill more Americans than terrorists (yes, even including 9/11).

Even with the September 11 attacks included in the count, the number of Americans killed by international terrorism since the late 1960s (which is when the State Department began counting) is about the same as the number of Americans killed over the same period by lightning, accident-causing deer, or severe allergic reaction to peanuts.
The worst case terrorist scenarios constantly touted by fear mongers, such as biowar agents or shoulder-fired antiaircraft missiles or nuclear weapons, haven't happened and it is extremely unlikely that they ever will. Paralyzing our society with "protections" against terrorism is letting the terrorists win. They win when they scare us, not when they kill people.
And people tend to be more alarmed by dramatic fatalities — which the September 11 crashes certainly provided — than by ones that cumulate statistically. Thus, the 3,000 deaths of September 11 inspire far more grief and fear than the 100,000 deaths from auto accidents that have taken place since then.
My favorite target, the SUV, kills more people than terrorists do. This "war" on terrorism that creates the fear of terrorism is costing us freedom and security and liberty, things that are among the most important.

6 comments:

Brad said...

I dont' know if I am all that against the idea behind the war on terror but I'm sure if half that money that was spent on it was spend on cancer research, the 3000+ people who were diagnosed with cancer TODAY would feel a bit better.

Shocho said...

Agreed. There are so many better ways to spend our time and effort than to defend against a trumped-up threat.

TheGirard said...

how many tower skyscrapers full of people have to collapse before the number jumps above those killed by peanuts?

DrHeimlich said...

It's time to declare WAR on peanuts!

(Count me in with those of you who think we should be curing diseases with war money. AND using stem cell research to get there.)

Trundling Grunt said...

Let's send all SUV drivers to Gitmo. That would solve many issues at a stroke. Then use the terrorism money on something useful like health or eddermercation.

Shocho said...

William Gibson linked to the same article, which makes me feel like The Luckiest Boy In The World today.

http://www.williamgibsonbooks.com/blog/2006_08_01_archive.asp#115500690269815854