Terrorism is not that big a deal. No matter what kind of security measures you institute and how many of OUR freedoms you take away terrorists will still be able to what they want because they only have to succeed once. Lets face it. It is incredibly unlikely that you are going to be injured or affected by a terrorist. More people die on the freeways in a year than in every act of terrorism against America EVER!
Because terrorism comes in frightening and dramatic forms we are scared and let the government pass ridiculous laws to destroy our freedoms and allow things like torture for "suspected terrorists." Freedom has come to mean the people who agree with Conservative America, not a wide array of ideas and debates. A prominent professor was just denied a visa because he spoke out against the War in Iraq and President Bush. Way to go Freedom right?
This is not the kind of horrible threat it is made out to be. We kill ourselves much faster than any terrorsit ever could. Stop taking our freedoms in a convuluted attempt to keep the country safe for "Freedom." "Freedom" -capital F, used by the right as a buzzword instead of an ideal- is the worst thing to happen to this country since...well, since the alien and sedition laws. I can't wait for those to come back by the way. Good times Good times.
Freedom is an ideal, not a buzzword, and it doesn't mean safety, and security. It means free expression, free thought, free speech, free marriage and free people. "Freedom" has been the word used to remove my freedoms, sucks huh?
What would be your solution? Also, did that professor have the correct credentials to get a visa?
Yeah, he was blogged about a little earlier today. Dr. Ramadan. He had everything, they just didn't like his ideas. I support freedom, we don't need all these crazy laws. There is nothing to do. All these security measures are bogus.
If anything we might want to stop invading sovereign nations and supporting violent coups with the CIA.
Res ipsa loquitur.
Memento mori, mahalo.
"Terrorism is not that big a deal."
Tell that to the little boy whose daddy never came home on 9/11. Tell that to the wife whose husband never came home on 3/11. Or maybe to the children whose parents were brutally murdered in Darfur.
Yes, it IS that big of a deal.
"It is incredibly unlikely that you are going to be injured or affected by a terrorist. More people die on the freeways in a year than in every act of terrorism against America EVER!"
So because the statistics say I probably won't die in a terrorist attack, I should just forget about it? I don't think so.
I think that your apathy towards terrorism is exactly the attitude that will get us attacked again.
Terrorism is a tiny, tiny threat. They can do no real damage to America, all they can do is kill Americans. There simply are not enough of them with enough resources to conquer or bring down America. Terrorists simply are NOT the biggest threat facing America. People constantly throw them up as a catch all bogey men to further their politics.
The way our country has chosen to approach the terrorist threat has done far more damage to our country than anything the terrorists have done. The PATRIOT Act, a botched war, and an administration that believes, with the help of pepole like you, that they can do anything they want in the name of saving us from the terrorist threat.
American democracy is on the rocks. Our focus on terrorism and exploitation of it have lead this country to a bad place. We torture people for even seeming like terrorsts. We invade nations we know nothing about and make a huge mess of things. We have created a huge issue that will likely decide our next president from something that could be, and should be handled differently.
As the war in Iraq becomes the litmus test issue of the next presidential election other issues fall by the way side. We should be making this country a better place. We should be trying to get our broken system in working order again. We should be providing health care for every citizen of this country. We should be weeding out the massive corruption or a thousand other things besides focusing the entire attention of the government and voting public on a war on an imaginary enemy. Not that terrorists themselves are imaginary, but that the image of terrorism held up to us as the enemy is imaginary.
We are on fragile footing in this country. Much more fragile than most people think and this ridiculous war on terrorism and our reaction to it is one of the things pushing us towards the brink. The war on terror and the constant representation of a foreign threat as the scariest thing since communism is destroying this country much surer than any terrorist ever could.
Simplistic emotional pleas are not going to change any of that, and the purpose of my freeway example was to point out that we kill ourselves on accident much, much faster than the terrorists. Why are we so afraid of terrorists when our roads are far more dangerous?
Res ipsa loquitur.
memento mori, mahalo.
"Patriotism is often an arbitrary veneration of real-estate above principals."
"Terrorism is a tiny, tiny threat. They can do no real damage to America, all they can do is kill Americans."
Oh yeah, that's all. Just kill innocent Americans. I'm sorry, but I'm going to be blunt. Is there something wrong with you? You think that the death of innocent Americans isn't a big deal? If I'm mistaken and just misunderstood you, then you should seriously reconsider the way you word things. I'm personally offended at how you just described the apparent unimportance of American lives.
"Why are we so afraid of terrorists when our roads are far more dangerous?"
We're afraid of terrorists because of what they represent, what they can do to us. Obviously people aren't afraid of the dangerousness of the roads. If they were, they'd be more careful. Terrorists can attack without warning. After 9/11, the economy went into major decline. That's what they want to do to us: put fear in our hearts in order to bring us down from within. They hate our ideas, our values, our beliefs, and will do anything to hurt us. If we leave them alone, what makes you think they'll leave us alone? It is their sole purpose to destroy us, no matter if we ignore them or go on the defense against them. I prefer the latter.
What about other lives? Do only American lives matter? In an earlier discussion you ignored terrorist attacks in Spain and England so that you could say "There has not been another attack since 9/11."
I pretty well made my point in the last reply: it is our reaction to terrorists that gives them their real power. Your fear and near total occupation with them is what is killing us. When the executive branch can throw up terrorists as a bogey man to further their political goals and millions of Americans will buy into it, the terrorists have done their real damage.
When a signifigant portion of this country will support things like the PATRIOT Act and still believes that the war in Iraq is a good idea the terrorists have won. Even the administration is pulling back support and admitting that it was a bad idea.
Res ipsa loquitur.
memento mori, mahalo.
"Patriotism is often an arbitrary veneration of real-estate above principals."
I did NOT ignore the other terrorist attacks. I meant there hasn't been another one in the United States since 9/11.
Other lives DO matter; but why are you degrading American lives?
Our reaction to terrorists? Did we fear terrorists before 9/11? No. But they attacked us anyway. What you don't seem to understand is that terrorists are RUTHLESS KILLERS and will attack us unprovoked.
The terrorists will win if we back down.
While the terrorists who commited 9/11 took things much further than necessary, it is a bit naive to say that they were unprovoked. The Western world, the USA and the UK in particular, has been dicking around
in the Middle East for decades. I am not saying the attacks were justified, but there is real history behind their anger.
I mean that our reaction to terrorism does more damage than terrorism itself. Terrorists cause damage by provoking reaction and fear more than actual destruction and death. The war in Iraq and the mindless fear of the American people have done infinetely more damage than the deaths or destruction of 9/11.
We are breaking the back of an already fragile American Democratic system so that people like you can say that we didn't back down. The war is being mismanaged into a pointless mire and military force rarely prevails over terrorist type organizations. It is the wrong approach to the problem.
I am not devaluing American lives, just putting them on the same level as Spanish and British lives. The lack of attacks in America does not constitute a victory when there have been attacks in other, allied countries with similar outlooks. They are our cultural allies, and their lives and their safety is as important as ours.
Res ipsa loquitur.
memento mori, mahalo.
"Patriotism is often an arbitrary veneration of real-estate above principals."
I disagree with you (again) but let's just agree to disagree, because we could go back and forth like this until the end of time.
We do seem to be talking in circles. Maybe later on we will find something we can actually communicate about. I am looking forward to it.
Res ipsa loquitur.
memento mori, mahalo.
"Patriotism is often an arbitrary veneration of real-estate above principals."