Let me say this about that!

[chefranden]

I got a forward from an old platoon mate full of information about what to do if "they" set off a dirty bomb.

 

I wrote back "No disrespect intended, but I for one am sick and tired of the worry over a terrorist attack, and the money being spent to fight the possiblity. As I recall we are supposed to be the "Home of the Brave". We have spent the last few years turning the US of A in to the Home of the Timid. In that process we have gone a long way towards not being the "Land of the Free". Which do you think is more likely? Being mangled to death in a car wreck or by a terrorist bomb? If you want to worry about something worry about your commute to work. The following article should put things into perspective for you."

 

If you really want to fight terrorism, ignor them! If one shows up on your door step with a bomb shoot the bastard, but otherwise ignore them. What do terrorist want you to do? They want you to get scared and run in circles holding your head screaming "Oh my god, oh my god, what ever shall I do"!!!! And so what do you do? Ya, that's right just what they want, and they frelling win.

 

You live day after day with things that are much more likely to kill you without going beserk. You exercise a little caution here and there and get on with it. Why not do the same with terrorists? Why not treat terrorists incidents like train wrecks?

 

    FEAR OF TERRORISM IS THE REAL ENEMY

 

    From Bumsrush:

 

    Preliminary 2001 data:

    Number of Deaths Annually: 2,417,798.

    Death Rate (age-adjusted): 849.0 deaths per 100,000 population.

    Ten Leading Causes of Death in the U.S.:

    Heart Disease: 699,697;

    Cancer: 553,251;

    Stroke: 163,601;

    Respiratory Disease: 123,974;

    Accidents: 97,707;

    Diabetes: 71,252;

    Pneumonia/Influenza: 62,123;

    Alzheimer's Disease: 53,679;

    Nephritis and Nephrosis: 39,661;

    Septicemia: 32,275; and

    Assault or Homicide (including terrorism at 14th): At 16,775, including 9-11.

    Terrorism alone would come in way down the list at 3,000 people. [and 2001 was hardly an average year- ed. note]

    Terrorist attack is 2 or 3 times more likely to take a life than lightning, averaged over the past 10 years. But you are 10 times more likely to be struck by lightning.

    The chance of being killed by a firearm is 38 times greater than by a terrorist attack.

    Accidental death is 323 times more likely.

    Automobile accident alone is 137 times more likely.

    Your chance of death by disease is 8,000 times greater.

    Your chances of dying in an airplane accident in the USA are one-third the chance of death by terrorist attack.

 

    Take a cool, rational look at these dangers that confront us and the resources we have to fight them. Pretend that you are in charge of making a decision in your own community of 100,000 people, and you have a billion dollars to spend protecting them with the following probable benefits. What do you choose?

 

    You can extend 4,000 lives if spent on disease prevention.

    You can extend 323 lives if spent on accident prevention.

    You can extend 38 lives if spent on homicide prevention.

    You can extend 1 life if spent on terrorism prevention .

    You can extend .3 lives if spent on lightning prevention or aircraft safety.

 

    The United States - WE - are currently spending billions and billions of dollars to protect ourselves from a terrorist threat. We have no assurance that this expenditure will prevent a single death. We have given George W. Bush and his Republican Congress a blank check to spend whatever they want to pursue this illusion of security. We have done this out of fear - pure unreasoning irrational fear. Terrorism is not the major threat to this society - fear of terrorism has become the threat. link

 

    As Bill Clinton pointed out in 1992 in his campaign against George I, it was "Hope vs Fear." BushCo's economic "plan" offers no hope to the mass of the population. Therefore, to stay in power it must motivate by fear. Hence, the National Security State.

 

    Folks, 1984 has come, if you don't believe me look at the cameras at every stop light. And think of their snappy slogans and how it applies to George Bush's America:

 

    "War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength"

[Merlinfmct87]

Brilliant point, Chef. I for one would much rather they crack down on drunk driving than terrorism...

 

Thanks for letting me know I'm not alone there....

 

Merlin

[dead_hobbit]

It boils my blood to know that the whole world is up in arms about an attack that cost 50 lives while they have been entirely IGNORING the holocaust being perpetrated in Sudan right now.

 

2 Million have been murdered!

 

How many more will die before the UN gets off its arab-pleasing ass?