Recently, In India, close to 200 people were killed because of a human stampede that occurred at a temple celebration.
There were around 12,000 people gathered for a festival. Rumors of a bomb began to circulate, and panic began to stir. In a mad collective state of terror, people began to rush, trying to leave the overcrowded temple., thus killing over 160 people.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/01/world/asia/01india.html?em
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=115037&d=1&m=10&y=2008
Not long ago, in Canada, a man on a Greyhound randomly began stabbing another man repeatedly, then Decapitated him with a knife in front of dozens of other passengers.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080731/Manitoba_bu...
Remember 9/11. Those planes were taken down by people holding box cutters.
These incidences prove that terrorists don't need actual bombs or elaborate schemes to be effective.
All they have to do is instill terror. The threat creates fear, and fear disables people.
If Americans really want to fight the war on terror, we should start examining fear itself. Collective fear is more dangerous than individual fear, and it spreads like wildfire, as the India incident shows. We would save more lives if we taught people how to react appropriately in the face of fear, rather than trying to kill all those terrorists out there.
