Does terrorism need to be our primary concern?

[Rainsford]

I read a few days ago about how Kerry said he wants to reduce our concern about terrorism and not have it be our primary concern in the future, and Bush attacked him saying he was being naive about the threat. This got me thinking, do we really need to make terrorism the primary concern of this country?

Think about it for a second. Terrorists lack the ability to REALLY damage the US like threats we've faced in the past. Japan and Germany could have invaded and occupied our country in WWII, dramatically changing how we live and damaging our country horribly. Russia could have killed every single person in the US with nukes, many times over. Terrorists, even at their "best" can kill a large number of people, but honestly the number of deaths from terrorism, while horrible, is more about scaring us than hurting us. Taken as a raw number, bad drivers, drugs, gun violence and many other things hurt the US more than terrorists could ever hope to.

I am NOT arguing we should ignore the threat, but isn't it something for our intelligence and police agencies to deal with while we get on with our lives? Bush seems to want us to think if we don't make terrorism our top priority, they will run amok in our country. Personally I don't see anything that would suggest improved intelligence and police agencies wouldn't be able to do the job without us worrying about it. If we took all that money going to Iraq and gave it to the CIA, NSA, FBI and local police agencies, I believe we could significantly improve our domestic security to the point where terrorism would be just one more problem to deal with, like Kerry suggests.

I could be wrong here, but I just don't see it. I can see no reason we need to be constantly worried about terrorism to the point where it's the #1 focus of our country. And before someone comes back with some snappy comment like "Tell that to the families of the 9/11 victims", more than 10 times the number of 9/11 victims died in 2001 from car accidents of one form or another, how many billions of dollars are being focused on "The War on Car Accidents"?

 

[PingSpike]

No it shouldn't be our main focus. But fear does a pretty good job of keeping people in line.

 

[BA]

If it is, the terrorists have won.

 

[maddogchen]

No, but stopping terrorism should be a primary concern for our Federal government agencies providing security. CIA, NSA, FBI, Customs.

But I can see how it can be a primary concern for some people. After all trust in the ability of the CIA and FBI is kinda low...they have failed us quite a few times already.

 

[SirStev0]

you know what i was talking with my roommate about this today...

this election seems to be based on three main issues.. terrorism, the war on iraq, and the crappy economy...

theoretically shouldnt there be other issues discussed... i honestly dont think i heard either canidate mention the drug problem or legalization... they also seem to be leaving the gun control issue alone... i know both are avid hunters but the nra is backing bush... i kinda wish that the debates were actually something more then... bush sent us to war without reason or resources... and kerry flip flops...

this is why i hate politics and personally i blame the asses like moore and coulter... they take one highly emotional issue and twist it until they can make people look at things their way... such bullsh!t

 

[rickn]

I read the nuisance comment more in-line with how we deal with terrorists at home, where we get to a mindset that it is a law enforcement job, and we aren't constantly reminded day in and day out that terrorists could strike us at anytime. It's been an effective tool for this administration (and TBH, it would have been an effective tool for any administration (Gore or Bush) after 9/11)

The threat will never go away. How long will American's let it consume their daily lives for? We need to work on securing our borders, securing the ports. Those are law enforcement jobs. Once you've did that, the threat level does diminish. Of course, it's not a nuisance when 1 slips by and kills a whole lotta people. But America can breed them kind of people right here at home (Hellooooo Timothy McVeigh)

 

[Vic]

You are correct. Terrorism is not the greatest threat facing our nation (although it makes a great distraction and politcal rallying point). The greatest threats facing the US today are our economic policies that are weakening our status as a superpower (and thus opening us up to economic invasion by foreign powers) and illegal immigrants.
The absolute greatest threat facing America today is that we are a house divided, but with compromise unlikely from either extreme side, I do not see this problem resolving itself anytime soon.

 

[CaptnKirk]

The Terror Alert Level was lowered form PINK to BEIGE,
after they realized that nobody was really really that
concerned about the immediate threat of gay marriage.

 

[Squisher]

Yes, terrorists can really damage a large potion of the US with the infamous WMD.


An aerosol release of nerve gas or poisoning the water supply. We're not even talking about a nuke.

I wish terrorism was reduced to nothing but a nuisance.

 

[Todd33]

Terrorism (or the fear of it) pays my bills in a fashion, but I don't have any worry about attacks. I'm more worried about earth quakes and car accidents. Terrorism is a good way to fund the military, they needed a new cold war. How many people have we lost to terrorism in the last ten years? Doesn't AIDS kill 75,000 Africans a day? It's the politics of fear.

 

[rickn]

Bush doesn't understand the nuisance part of it, because he looks at a map of the world and sees one big giant map of Texas. He's trying to round em up wherever they are, and that's an impossible task.

Yes, terrorists can really damage a large potion of the US with the infamous WMD.

There's plenty of home grown terrorism. We thought of terrorism after the Oklahoma City bombings was just an inconceivable nuisance. Who's to say some other crackpot like Timmy isn't just waiting for his/her turn. We turn out WMD right here at home, in our colleges, various labs across the USA. You don't have to travel far my friend.

 

[PingSpike]

Terrorism will never go away. You can't really win the war or terror. At least not in the way people think it can be.

 

[Rainsford]

Originally posted by: Squisher
Yes, terrorists can really damage a large potion of the US with the infamous WMD.


An aerosol release of nerve gas or poisoning the water supply. We're not even talking about a nuke.

I wish terrorism was reduced to nothing but a nuisance.

Ok, I'll admit there are numerous ways to kill a lot of people, but I think you are overestimating how easy it is to accomplish those things. But be that as it may, isn't that still a job for our law enforcement agencies? Is it something we need to hear about every single time the president speaks? How is making it our number 1 concern helping?

 

[Rainsford]

Originally posted by: PingSpike
Terrorism will never go away. You can't really win the war or terror. At least not in the way people think it can be.

I view it as an ongoing process, one that needs to be a concern of our police and intelligence forces...NOT the average American citizen, or we'll never get any rest from it.

 

[Genx87]

Think about it for a second. Terrorists lack the ability to REALLY damage the US like threats we've faced in the past. Japan and Germany could have invaded and occupied our country in WWII, dramatically changing how we live and damaging our country horribly. Russia could have killed every single person in the US with nukes, many times over. Terrorists, even at their "best" can kill a large number of people, but honestly the number of deaths from terrorism, while horrible, is more about scaring us than hurting us. Taken as a raw number, bad drivers, drugs, gun violence and many other things hurt the US more than terrorists could ever hope to.

I agree unless they get a WMD they wont beable to inflict the amount of raw damage and loss of life that an empire like Japan, Soviet Union, or Nazi Germany could.

But you witnessed the economic aftermath of 9-11. That is how they can hurt us by stalling our economy with attacks every few years like 9-11.

1 million jobs were lost within a couple of months of 9-11. That will bring the biggest of giants to their knees.

I do think it needs to be our main focus for the forseeable future with the hope that we can keep it a main focus of our intelligence agencies but not in the minds of the citizens.

 

[ntdz]

terrorism is more than just about the loss of life. Look what happened to our country after 9/11 happened. 1 Million people lost their job the month after 9/11. Terrorism has a much bigger impact that just loss of life and property, it directly affects people's lives. I think it's important that we try to stop terrorism, b/c another 9/11 happening will hurt our country in numerous different ways.

 

[Rainsford]

Originally posted by: Genx87

Think about it for a second. Terrorists lack the ability to REALLY damage the US like threats we've faced in the past. Japan and Germany could have invaded and occupied our country in WWII, dramatically changing how we live and damaging our country horribly. Russia could have killed every single person in the US with nukes, many times over. Terrorists, even at their "best" can kill a large number of people, but honestly the number of deaths from terrorism, while horrible, is more about scaring us than hurting us. Taken as a raw number, bad drivers, drugs, gun violence and many other things hurt the US more than terrorists could ever hope to.

I agree unless they get a WMD they wont beable to inflict the amount of raw damage and loss of life that an empire like Japan, Soviet Union, or Nazi Germany could.

But you witnessed the economic aftermath of 9-11. That is how they can hurt us by stalling our economy with attacks every few years like 9-11.

1 million jobs were lost within a couple of months of 9-11. That will bring the biggest of giants to their knees.

I do think it needs to be our main focus for the forseeable future with the hope that we can keep it a main focus of our intelligence agencies but not in the minds of the citizens.

Did 9/11 really hurt our economy or was it simply an event that came at the same time as the start of an already weakening economy. The economy was already on a downspin before 9/11, wasn't it? Just wondering because I've seen this a lot, and have wondered how much of an impact 9/11 really had.

 

[Spamela]

i think the hype & concern are exaggerated relative to the risk.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Originally posted by: Rainsford
Did 9/11 really hurt our economy or was it simply an event that came at the same time as the start of an already weakening economy. The economy was already on a downspin before 9/11, wasn't it? Just wondering because I've seen this a lot, and have wondered how much of an impact 9/11 really had.

You can read this if you're interested:

http://www.fas.org/irp/crs/RL31617.pdf

It's a Report for Congress titled: The Economic Effects of 9/11:
A Retrospective Assessment

It's a boring drudge of a report to read, but there are a few choice nuggets of info in it.