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Oct. 30, 2004 Terrorism. Its what has defined this nation's feelings since 9/11 almost 3 years ago. The events on that day were horrible, no doubt. Roughly 3,000 Americans died that day. Everyone is afraid of terrorism, I'm no exception. I don't want my family to die from a nuclear blast, or anthrax, or a car bomb. However, what almost every single person in america fails to realize is the true perspective of the situation. I bet almost everyone reading this has purchased a lottery ticket sometime in their life. Why? You feel you're going to win, even though the odds of you actually winning are pathetically small. 1 chance in 10 million or so. When you purchased this ticket, did you drive your car to the store or work that day? If so, you must have consciously been aware that 50,000 american lives are lost every single year for decades and decades. What, you didn't realize that? You didn't think about it? Why not? Every 20 years 1 million americans die prematurely due to car accidents. That's one chance in about 260. If you bought one lottery ticket every week for 20 years, your chance of winning the lottery is about one chance in 10,000. In other words your risk of dying in a car crash is thousands of times greater than winning the lottery, yet you freely hop in your car to go get a lottery ticket. The statistics of terrorism are the same. Your chance of dying to terrorism is right about up there with your chance of getting hit by lightning. About the ONLY thing which poses less risk to you than terrorism is the danger of being hit by a meteor. Do you smoke? By comparison that makes driving look like an incredibly safe activity. Yet tens of millions of Americans freely smoke. I can't imagine anything more oxymoronic than driving to the store to buy another pack of cigarettes while worrying about how Bush is the guy who will make us safer against terrorism. Its quite simply ludicrous. With that in perspective, I pay attention when I drive. I pay less attention when I hear Bush and Cheney talk about the terrorists and how Bush is making this country safer. After all, even if they did a horrible job my chances of dying to a terrorist are far down the list of things I need to worry about. Even if an entire city of a million people gets taken out by a dirty bomb, more americans have died to car accidents in the past 20 years. Now that we have some perspective, lets consider reducing the risk of terrorism. Just like you don't walk out on the golf course holding the club high above your head during a thunderstorm, there are smart things we can do to reduce the risk of terrorism. We need to find the perpetrators who plan and do these things. How many agents do we have around the world? How much intelligence? Well, consider the John Malvo case. It took our entire country full of FBI agents, police, and concerned citizens MONTHS to find him. Meanwhile he was killing people every few days. That was INSIDE the USA proper. Now how hard do you think it is for the USA to find terrorists in France? In Germany? In Spain? How about in Lebanon? How about Egypt? The problem is obvious. We will NEVER be able to single-handedly stop terrorists from plotting attacks on the USA when they can be stationed anywhere on the planet. To stop terrorists from plotting in other countries and then attacking the USA, we HAVE to rely upon the intelligence from foreign countries. Its quite plainly the ONLY hope we have of identifying terrorist cells around the world. Now do you think these countries will be more willing to cooperate with a belligerent USA that pre-emptively invades other countries who did not attack the USA? Or do you think that we will get more cooperation from these governments if they feel their goals align more closely with those of the USA? I'm not saying we roll-over and be the wimp of the world, giving in to ridiculous demands. However, acting against the wishes of the vast majority of the world does not improve our international standing. In this global war on terrorism, we simply HAVE to improve our international standing, and we cannot do this by force. If the bully down the street threatens to punch your neighbor, does that endear you more to the bully or to your neighbor? Whether justified or not, the perception of the USA is that we are the world's bully. Now I don't believe that's justified (historically anyway), but at the same time I can't really say that our invasion of Iraq helped alleviate that image either. We need a president who has a vision of the USA as a world LEADER and not a world bully. We need a president who will do this because otherwise the risk of terrorism against us rises every single day rather than falling every day. Although I have only discussed terrorism above, there are so many reasons to dislike the current administration for domestic issues as well, but I'll just sum it up by this: 4 years, zero vetoed spending bills, and a 200 billion yearly surplus turned into a 400 billion yearly deficit. I don't care HOW expensive some of Kerry's plans are, they simply will not be as expensive as the Bush administration has been to this country. Remember each year of debt is more debt that our children and grandchildren pay for. Bush has added $3,000 of debt to every single man, woman, and child in the USA during his term as president ($800 billion total debt increase under Bush). Remember, the piper has to be paid sometime. I know who I'll be voting for on November 2nd, and its not the man who has diminished our standing in the world, and increased our debt by staggering amounts to pay for the reckless invasion of Iraq as well as deeply flawed domestic policies. ------------ About the author: Paul Rugheimer has a Ph.D. in Physics, and considers himself an independent voter who tries to base his decisions upon objective information and thought. Email: rugheimer@gmail.com Tell a friend about this site! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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