Here, read this.
It's quite long, and it was originally a PDF, which I know will turn a number of people off, so here, in HTML, direct to your friends list is some real sense regarding terrorism.
It's a friday afternoon. If you have a few minutes to kill, please consider giving this a read. If you think it makes sense, please do link to this post, or the original PDF. It would be nice to see a little intelligence doing the rounds a fraction as much as the hysterical media does.
A False Sense of Insecurity? BY JOHN MUELLER
Ohio State University
Originally found in PDF format at
http://www.cato.org/pubs/regulation/regv27n3/v27n3-5.pdfDetermining how to respond to the terrorist challenge has become a major public policy issue in the United States over the last three years. It has been discussed endlessly, many lives have been changed, a couple of wars have been waged, and huge sums of money have been spent — often after little contemplation — to deal with the problem.
Throughout all this, there is a perspective on terrorism that has been very substantially ignored. It can be summarized, somewhat crudely, as follows:
- Assessed in broad but reasonable context, terrorism generally does not do much damage.
- The costs of terrorism very often are the result of hasty, ill-considered, and overwrought reactions.
A sensible policy approach to the problem might be to stress that any damage terrorists are able to accomplish likely can be absorbed, however grimly. While judicious protective and policing measures are sensible, extensive fear and anxiety over what may at base prove to be a rather limited problem are misplaced, unjustified, and counterproductive.
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