Are We OverReacting to Terrorism
Regular thorn-in-our-side Invalid10 makes a good point in the comments: “You have a higher chance of being killed by your toaster than a terrorist.”
I’m sympathetic to this argument, as you can see from my rant about the Swine Flu.
So why, in real life, are we willing to lose more lives fighting the terrorists than were lost in the terrorist attacks themselves?
In a similar vein, why do other countries fight costly wars over meaningless little strips of land?
Well, it’s for the same reason that a Mafioso will hunt you to the ends of the earth if you steal from him and run. The amount of money involved may be small, but the message it sends is critical: Violations will not be tolerated.
It’s also the reason the IRS tries to recover a few hundred dollars at a time from individual taxpayers.
Some of these “overreactions” are entirely rational, like the terrorism, Mafia, and IRS examples above.
Some are laughably irrational – like companies trying to save money by buying fewer staplers.
In some cases, the lack of even symbolic action encourages violations – like the routine influx of illegal immigrants.
I support hunting terrorists to the ends of the earth because it sends an important message. Yes, losing brave lives in that cause is a rational decision.
I support greater immigration enforcement, not because it will catch even the majority of illegal immigrants, but because it will send the right message to anyone who’s thinking of making a long, expensive, and illegal journey in search of an American job.
I don’t support most silly corporate “cost cutting” measures. They send the right message, but at far too high a cost in lost morale and product quality.
I don’t support the Swine Flu vaccination craze because it’s likely to kill more people than it saves.
All clear now? Great!
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November 20th, 2009 at 3:41 pm
Fighting terrorism and hunting the bastards down is great.
Overreacting is when no one challenges and allows warrantless surveillance and zero-oversight executive powers. None of which Obama has relinquished by the way. Bush and/or Obama may be trusted, but what about the next guy?
November 20th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
It’s not an incidental finding that worst U.S. presidents are all war presidents: Lincoln, FDR, Wilson, LBJ, Nixon, and Bush so this is why people say War is the health of the State.
I think there is something to be said for the idea of substituting a fake enemy (abstract idea of terrorism) for the real enemy (a central government,) and it’s the Federal Government’s foreign policies that provoke people like KSM anyways as he has said in his own words during interrogations. Most of those people in Afghanistan, when interviewed, don’t even know what the twin towers were.
November 20th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
“War is the health of the State”
or you could just say “Crisis is the health of the State”
November 20th, 2009 at 8:20 pm
Poli – good.
Only way back to normalcy is thru unabashed capitalism and American exceptionalism. But it may be too late.
November 21st, 2009 at 6:23 am
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
H. L. Mencken
November 21st, 2009 at 8:01 am
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
Cheney was perfection, a hobgloblin in sheep’s clothing, warning of hobgoblins.
November 21st, 2009 at 8:02 am
Should be “…hobgoblin in sheep’s…”.
November 21st, 2009 at 9:07 am
“I don’t support the Swine Flu vaccination craze because it’s likely to kill more people than it saves.”
This statement alone is all the evidence we need to demonstrate that you are indeed a very ignorant person.
November 21st, 2009 at 9:10 am
“Invalid10″ is not nearly the “thorn in the side” that Oak Leaf is. Quite remarkable that Poli would make such a statement. Talk about not seeing the forest for the trees!
Poli allows a far Left extremeist like Oak Leaf to be a regular contributor to this site, yet he tellingly refers to “Invalid10″ as a “thorn in the side.”
How interesting. If Poli considers liberal posters to be a “torn in our side”, why in heavens name does he give Oak Leaf a giant platform to spew his Leftist propaganda?
I’m begining to question Poli’s sanity.
November 21st, 2009 at 9:32 am
“I support hunting terrorists to the ends of the earth because it sends an important message. Yes, losing brave lives in that cause is a rational decision.”
Your simplistic chest-beating argument completely fails to take into account how such “messages” are received by their intended audience, the specific manner in which the US is “hunting down” terrorists (i.e., how these “messages” are actually being sent), and the amount of resources that we expend in proportion to the supposed benefit.
If your goal is to prevent or reduce terrorism on US soil and you believe that the GWOT, such as it is currently being implemented, communicates “resolve” or “toughness” (or whatever message you would like to send; feel free to elaborate on this) to the groups and countries that harbor terrorists is going to be interpreted by them in the manner that you seem to be assuming, you are ignoring the fact that it often has had the exact opposite effect (i.e., when civilians are killed, as so many hundreds of thousands have been in the past decade by US and allied forces).
It has been well documented and by military analysts and others that our recent efforts of the past have created even greater anger against America that will almost certainly lead to MORE terrorism (and already has, internationally). We are less safe because of many of these activities.
OTOH, if your intended audience in this “war” is the cowardly xenophobic keyboard kommandos and any and all Americans who harbor an irrational and disproportionate fear of terrorism (thanks to the right wing-enabling media) THEN this “message” serves a function, a political one.
So you see why people like me completely distrust people like you who keep claiming to be fighting terrorists but are more often than not really fighting Democrats and Liberals, sacrificing American lives for partisan political reasons, and wasting HUGE amounts of our resources in the process.
November 23rd, 2009 at 5:12 am
Fighting terrorism is one thing. Dropping uranium-tipped bombs on wedding parties is another.
November 23rd, 2009 at 6:03 am
“You do not create terrorism by fighting it, you invite terrorism by ignoring it.” – President George W. Bush