A refreshing, realistic view on terrorism and the so called security theater...

[goldorak]

Well well well it wasn't long ago that I got flamed down in a thread for advocating that Terrorists should be treated as the criminals they are (and such policies have worked really well in western europe where we have had for decades terrorism), instead of being hyped as the coming of the anticrist. And use them as an excuse to curtail our democratic rights.

Bruce Shneier a security expert on CNN writes :

Is aviation security mostly for show?

[cut]

Terrorism is rare, far rarer than many people think. It's rare because very few people want to commit acts of terrorism, and executing a terrorist plot is much harder than television makes it appear.

The best defenses against terrorism are largely invisible: investigation, intelligence, and emergency response. But even these are less effective at keeping us safe than our social and political policies, both at home and abroad. However, our elected leaders don't think this way: They are far more likely to implement security theater against movie-plot threats.

Our current response to terrorism is a form of "magical thinking." It relies on the idea that we can somehow make ourselves safer by protecting against what the terrorists happened to do last time.

They do not include expansive new police or spying laws. Our police don't need any new laws to deal with terrorism; rather, they need apolitical funding.

By not overreacting, by not responding to movie-plot threats, and by not becoming defensive, we demonstrate the resilience of our society, in our laws, our culture, our freedoms. There is a difference between indomitability and arrogant "bring 'em on" rhetoric. There's a difference between accepting the inherent risk that comes with a free and open society, and hyping the threats.

We should treat terrorists like common criminals and give them all the benefits of true and open justice -- not merely because it demonstrates our indomitability, but because it makes us all safer.

Once a society starts circumventing its own laws, the risks to its future stability are much greater than terrorism.

Despite fearful rhetoric to the contrary, terrorism is not a transcendent threat. A terrorist attack cannot possibly destroy a country's way of life; it's only our reaction to that attack that can do that kind of damage. The more we undermine our own laws, the more we convert our buildings into fortresses, the more we reduce the freedoms and liberties at the foundation of our societies, the more we're doing the terrorists' job for them.

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Source : http://edition.cnn.com/2009/OPINION/...ter/index.html

[XabbaRus]

It's funny in all the years of the IRA bombing mainland UK there were never the calls for ID cards, phone taps etc like there is now and I would consider the IRA than a bigger threat and Islamic terrorists are now.

The provos were much more capable than any Al-Qaeda type group is now of causing chaos in the UK.

I wouldn't be surprised if there are still a few hiddens caches of arms in mainland UK that have been forgotten about or lost.

You go, Goldorak!

You are Right On, so by all means, Write On!

[Dowly]

I can change my fontsize too!

[Letum]

AT LEAST HE
DIDN'T USE
CAPITALS AND
BOLD.
o

[Dowly]

[goldorak]

Originally Posted by Letum

AT LEAST HE
DIDN'T USE
CAPITALS AND
BOLD.
o

What's wrong with underlining important quotes from the article ?
Not everything has to be written in small caps.

In any case its good to see atleast some people that actually "get" what terrorism is, how to deal with it and the reason the US is going all wrong dealing with this issue.
Too bad that such rational thinking is drowned in a sea of hype and "warmongering attitude as if you could really wage war on a abstract concept". Just remind me, has the war on drugs been won ? After several decades ? No you say. Well thats exactly the situation where the US will be in 50 years. Still heralding the "victory" on the war on terror all the while your freedoms will have been all but eliminated because there is a 0,0000001% probability that a person could perpetrate a crimine oops I meant a terrorist attack.

Just a note, I was apalled listening to NPR radio about how people (or sheeple a better term) are OK with going to the airport 6 fricking hours before a flight because of security measures.
If this doesn't tell you just how ****ed up the whole system is and how the terrorists have already won nothing will.

The US a country of fear induced citizens. You really have to wonder how countries that have had political/ethnical terrorism for decades have manged to survive and go along just fine without trasforming ourselves and our societies into some kind of kafkian bad dream.
Carpenter and other filmakers ironically managed to capture this latent american fear very well decades ago in films such as 1997 escape from new york and another b movie Fortress with Cristophe Lambert.
They dreamed it up, your stupid politicians made it real.