Cameras everywhere. Black lists, gray lists, white lists. X rays gamma rays body scans and searches. Phone taps. Internet eavesdropping. Mail and library card surveillance. Background checks. Financial snooping. Profiling. Preemptive search and seizure. Unwarranted arrests. Disappearances. "Watch out for the Terrorists!! They're gonna get you! Give us the right to strip you of all your rights and freedoms....and then we can stop those Terrorists!"
Yes...the above is an exaggeration..but not by much.
Simply put.....We need to stop elevating the risk of terrorism and scaring ourselves into eliminating more and more of our Freedoms. Terrorism is not our biggest risk in life. It is not our Country's biggest risk. It is a very very small risk, relatively. Yet we invest an enormous amount of fear, money, debilitating and restrictive self regulation on our fear of terrorism.
Terrorism is real. Always has been. Always will. Since the dawn of civilizations; those who perceive themselves (rightly or wrongly) to be unfairly treated and without the military means to defend themselves, carry out terrorism against their more powerful foes. Welcome to earth. But we, we Americans; we, the NATO allied western nations.... We have simply decided to elevate terrorism and the fear of it...to such an extreme, that we are able to justify suffocating the very precious Freedoms we inherited in this great Country... from our Founding Fathers and from their compatriots who fought so hard for them.... the same Freedoms that so many brave Americans fought to preserve over the past two and a half centuries.
My assumptions and premises are as follows (see below)
- Al Kaeda exists...but it is a loose-knit net of frustrated and disenfranchised, anger driven religious extremists. It's "members" are simply those who deem themselves members, thru indoctrination in person or by internet.... and who then buy into the rhetoric. There is not one big Al Kaeda organization...a sort of "Hate America International corp." run as an hierarchical organization. Sorry, doesn't exist outside Cheney's head.
- Osama Bin Laden died in 2001 and hasn't been seen or heard from since (no fake audios or videos, thank you)(Believing this is not necessary to my overall point...but it furthers my point of how emotionally driven this all is...when we can not even see that the guy is dead who we think is the awesome powerful Leader of the Marauding Terrorist of the Middle East who "hate our freedoms".)
- We have far greater worries, threats, and dangerous issues to occupy our minds than trying to defend against every would be terrorist/nut case that tries, successfully or unsuccessfully, to kill a bunch of Americans or western allies. The chance of any one of us being killed by terrorism is so far off the map of probability...it could never occupy the concerns of a government and people focused on the actual probability of risks rather than the emotional/animal/tribal centric excitement of fighting terrorism. (Food shortage, disease, climate change, financial greed and unfairness, dictatorships, criminal acts, avoidable accidents, etc.)
- There will always be people trying to hurt others, in mass. You don't build walls (literally or thru restrictive laws) to protect the masses from the few nut cases, terrorists, serial murderers, serial rapists. You take moderate defensive measures, commensurate with the actual probability of risks. And you work to find root causes, if and when, possible.
- If we look at the actual numbers.....how many, not just Americans, but humans, are killed by terrorism in the world per year. Then look at automobile deaths, criminal murders, deadly diseases, tobacco, government sponsored deaths (from military and police operations to judicial executions)..... the risk of death by terrorism is at the bottom of the ladder of risks. It's really a very small number. And it is completely disproportionate to the massive national/international reactions to terrorism and disproportionate to the restrictive and freedom denying impact of those reactions on our way of life.
- Yes, 9/11 was a massive act of brutal and savage terrorism. But, no...it did not require or justify our killing hundreds of thousands of people and killing the fundamental liberties of our Constitution. Better control of who can get into a commercial jet's cockpit....would eliminate the risk of planes being used as bombs. Beyond that....if we make planes really terrorist proof (get ready for invasive cavity inspections), won't the terrorists just focus on blowing up ships, shopping centers, or other highly populated places or buildings??
- I believe we will never be able to eliminate the risk of death by terrorists through defensive measures. Rather we must learn to live with those risks and learn how to reduce those risks at their core, at their cause... by fighting against poverty, and helping the disenfranchised, the masses of jobless youth with no future, preventing military occupations by powerful nations in the countries of the less powerful, eschewing dictatorships that victimize social, religious or racial groups, etc. etc. (It is a never ending fight....I know. But these are the real and productive battles to discourage terrorism.....always have been.)
- When I walk outside, anyone can kill me with a gun, from near or far, with or without warning. But I don't put a bullet proof shield around me. I don't hide inside. I don't have a dozen "gun men" walking with me. I simply try to act decently enough with all those I engage, so that I do not create the need for another to kill me. But, beyond that.... I simply accept the risks of life. I want my freedom to walk outside, unfettered, and will accept the risks associated with that freedom. We should behave the same as a nation of freedom lovers.
- No one has been able to convince me; that if we took our troops out of the middle east; stopped supporting Israel's military occupation of Palestine (I know I will be bashed for this, sorry, and there are many sides to this..... but I believe this is a key cause to the anger that fuels much of the anti western terrorism); used much of our military budget for international programs focused on health, education, and cultural exchange; really truly supported the UN and its role as an international force for peace; aggressively supported the international implementation of the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights contained in the articles of the UN....... that we wouldn't be a lot safer and more prosperous and be able to experience greater freedom, with much less risk of terrorism.
- I also realize that there are horrific people/groups in the world bent on expressing their horror on others and that we as individuals, as a nation, and as a world, must take measures to protect ourselves. But within reason. It is not black and white. Measured responses, and pre-emptive defenses, to probable risks are, of course, appropriate and wise.
- Terrorists, of any race, religion or country.....blowing up buildings, planes, ships or groups of people, will never undermine or remotely come close to destroying America as a great Nation. But self-stripping Americans of the core human freedoms, and core standards of human rights, galvanized in our Constitution..... could.
- After reading this, if you feel I am naive, or that I may not be able to accept or cope with the dangerous "reality" of terrorism.... I understand....and I realize that there are many more that agree with you, than me. I can only say, thanks for listening.