The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
The Forum - On Line Opinion's article discussion area



Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

Main Articles General

Sign In      Register

The Forum > Article Comments > Is the terrorism threat overblown? > Comments

Is the terrorism threat overblown? : Comments

By Katherine Wilson, published 3/10/2006

Commentators, terror experts and their media echo chamber are exagerrating the scale of the threat we face

  1. Pages:
  2. Page 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. 6
  8. All
Of course the threat is overblown. That's been quite clear for some time. The problem is, people seem to be voting for the best scaremongerer.

There is of course the alternative argument which I'm sure will be expressed here - a terrorist attack could kill many, and isn't one enough?

Fair point - though perhaps if we hadn't been such keen participants in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, we would be a much less likely target than the US.

It may sound callous, to simply leave the US to be attacked without rendering assistance, and it is. But however much they may claim they were forced into action on Iraq, it just wasn't so. Now they've had to admit that their war their has made the terrorist situation worse, and it's getting harder and harder to justify this war in the first place (and here I thought not finding WMD's was bad enough).

Quite frankly, on my list of fears, terrorism ranks somewhere just below bee sting, and somewhere just above aggressive telemarketers, placing it at about... 63rd.

Way below the prevalence of car accidents, or the drive to privatise government assets.
Posted by TurnRightThenLeft, Tuesday, 3 October 2006 10:46:45 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
Considering the incredibly low odds of being caught up in a terrorist attack, particularly in Australia, I'm more concerned about the real threats of peak oil, water scarcity, over-population and global warming.
Posted by jimoctec, Tuesday, 3 October 2006 11:06:44 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
No other aspect of the bogus War on Terror better illustrates illicit profiteering than the so-called free enterprise "security industry". It should be called the "insecurity industry", to better illustrate the sheer Orwellian nature of it's methods.

9-11 was the starter's gun for the security lice to go forth and multiply. Vast fortunes have since been garnered in the US and Iraq. This is because some of the principal players were involved in the destruction of the WTC - and had lined themselves up for a share of the cake under the Homeland Security Act. The Homeland Security Act was conceived long , long before 9-11.

Like dishonest glaziers, they break windows by night and charge a fortune for shabby repairs by day.

There is no better illustration of this than the London tube bombings. On the very day, the chief security consultant, Peter Powers admitted that they were practising that very scenario, when it suddenly went "live".

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-3770877779111334563&q=london+bombing

London Commissioner of Transport Bob Kiley was ex-CIA.

Coincidentally, ex-NY Mayor Giuliani was in London that day. He had started his own security company after 9-11.

* * *

Once these forces are unleashed, the flow of money and profit takes no account of friend or foe. There are only populations to be frightened - then fleeced.
Posted by Chris Shaw, Carisbrook 3464, Tuesday, 3 October 2006 11:28:28 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
TRTL,

You have hit the nail on the head, but I fear you have yet to make the conncection that myself and Chris Shaw have made, that the security threat is not merely exaggerated and exploited, it is manufactured covertly, (this does not apply to all terrorsit acts)so that it CAN be exploited.

Just look at the evidence surrounding 9/11, there is an extraordinary number of anomalies that suggest US govt. complicity in those attacks, its a tough line to swallow I know but once you've looked the events of that day closely and though about, I think you will wonder how you ever bought 'man in a cave' rubbish
Posted by Carl, Tuesday, 3 October 2006 11:51:31 AM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
O.K., people, so YOU know all this and I know all this and anyone who has ever heard of the "divide and conquer" ethos know this - but how does one convince the amorphous mass of the great Australian public whose views are shaped - yes, Orwellian-style - through commercial media?

I have long thought that it should be just as viable to be able to lodge complaints regarding the spread of panic by witless tv "personalities", as it is to register complaints regarding sexism or ageism or any other ism.

The day after the London bombings Alpha Male Koshie on a morning T.V. show described how, as soon as he had heard the news he telephoned one of his daughters not to catch the bus home that evening but to take a taxi - "Well, as a parent, y'know..." he tailed off sheepishly; thus gaining instant empathy from countless other parents who immediately began to feel it was part of their parental duty also to warn their offspring that deep in the heart of terror cells dark plans were being laid to annhiliate their little Rebecca or Matthew on the number 2 bus to whichever suburban outpost they inhabited.

People who never pick up a book or a newspaper live their lives to the background of such senseless droning from either t.v. or radio which, allied to the mushrooming of companies mentioned above, I think contributes to this risible public perception.

I also consider it far more scary that young Rebecca or Matthew is far more at risk from suicide than from terrorism, in a country that leads the world in suicide rates in the the under 30 age bracket. Perhaps if the poor kids didn't spend their lives embroiled in unnecessary stresses like the so-called terrorist threat they would not find life so frightening or hopeless that they considered it preferable to end rather than live it?
Posted by Romany, Tuesday, 3 October 2006 12:21:50 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
I don't know what the risk of terrorism is and I doubt many do. Maybe it's less because those whose job it is to work against it are successful, eg the recent plot to blow up airplanes. Maybe there is little terror threat or activity.

However there is another element that needs to be considered: regret. There is a fairly high 'risk' of getting caught if I speed in my car. But thre regret is low: I cop a fine. There is a fairly low risk if I speed in my car of having a crash but the regret is high: I might cop a death (mine or anothers).

The risk of global warming is very high: it will happen, the regret is low to me. It'll mostly happen outside my lifetime and future population will mosty like adapt to it anyway.

I think with terrorism we are lucky that terrorists, at least the international ones seem to like iconic events where the risk to the rest of us is low but have a high regret if we are in the building, train, plane or nightclub.

My fear of terrorists is a dozen people with lighters and cars, on a high fire risk day, at the bushy edges of one or more of our capital cities. Maybe the risk of that happening is very low but the regret will be tremendous and to possibly thousands of people.

I know it's human nature to downgrade events that haven't happened (especially to 'us') but to say such events won't happen is foolishness. Just ask the commuters in Spain.
Posted by PeterJH, Tuesday, 3 October 2006 12:32:51 PM
Find out more about this user Recommend this comment for deletion Return to top of page Return to Forum Main Page Copy comment URL to clipboard
  1. Pages:
  2. Page 1
  3. 2
  4. 3
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. 6
  8. All

About Us :: Search :: Discuss :: Feedback :: Legals :: Privacy