Will we ever be able to live without fear of terrorism?

Imagine how much worse it would be if you lived anywhere outside the US (and not just Kabul, Belgrade or Baghdad) and was worried the whole time that US foreign policy decided it’s time to bomb your home. Terrorism works both ways.

The only way to live peacefully is if everyone stops. This idea that the US will be peaceful once it eliminates everyone else on the planet reminds me of those crazy aliens in Douglas Adam’s books.

I don’t think that we will ever again be able to stop worrying about terrorism, because as long as there are at least two people still on the Earth, one of them might be jealous or angry or acquisitive or protective or something or someone, or just feeling aggressive. It could be too much testosterone, or female hormones, any of these causes and many others have been responsible for violence and loss of life.

Terrorists shouldn’t scare us. Although the mode of their killing is horrific, they have killed relatively few people as a proportion. We should be actively fighting them, but the average person walking down the street should be more worried about dying in a car accident than a bomb blast.

The poor misunderstood terrorists are busily killing lots of different people, including their own if they don’t belong to the correct church or political affiliation. The Brits have been bombed, they went after the Aussies in Bali, the list is quite long. So probably no we will never be without the fear as long as there is a carrot dangling out front, whether it be 42 virgins or wealth or plain old power or jealousy of anothers’ way of life.

I live my life everyday without fear of terrorism.

There will always be hopeless nutcases who think that is a way to make a statement.
Until someone invents a nutball sensor we will have to continue looking for the explosives.

The word “terrorist” give them more standing than they deserve. I prefer to use a more demaeaning term like nutcase or fanatic or special Koolaid drinker.
Feel free to suggest your own names.

It’s always been with us, but because of the media, we know about it, and it seems larger because it is us, and now.

The American military knowingly eradicated thousands of Native Americans in the 1830’s by giving them blankets that were used by smallpox victims who were quarantined on ships on the Great Lakes. During the Blackhawk War, infants were held by their feet, and their heads bashed against trees, women were hung from the rafters of barns and disemboweled while still alive.

Being fearful of random violence is perhaps more the normal state than its been in the US for a long time. I spent my childhood terrified that a nuclear bomb would be dropped in me; we had bomb drills during school.

It’s up to you if you want to live your life in fear or not…

Terrorism isn’t particularly bad in the USA. The government just milks it for all it’s worth.
Governments often like to use a bogeyman to justify increasing control over the populace, and to motivate people via nationalism to support them, especially in democracy.

It’s just because of their position as global superpower, and the fact that persecution and demonization of minorities recently went of fashion in the USA, that such a lame donkey as Islamicism has been dressed up as Public Enemy #1.

Maybe if, as a society, you concentrated on solving the domestic problems, which are a much larger threat to people’s well-being than terrorism, rather than concentrating on ripping off and controlling as much of the world as possible, you wouldn’t have to worry about terrorism at all.
Plus, you’d be dealing with all those much greater issues, and actually working towards a better society.

But I guess that’s just not the American Way…

Terrorists have completely and utterly failed to scare me into doing anything differently. And if the US government is really secretly using terrorists to mind control me or whatever, they need to try harder, because I’m feeling pretty secure.

There was a huge scare last night in the Times Square area. Packed with tourists and people emerging from the theater. Luckily, the equipment was faulty and started to smoke before it blew.

@gailcalled

“Last night there was a car parked on time square that was loaded with explosives and if not for the faulty bomb this could have been detrimental.”

I know the misuse of “detrimental” makes this the understatement of the century,
but I understood, nonetheless.

@The_Idler: Where’s the quote from? “Detrimental is certainly a very odd choice.

How about “catastrophic”?

@gailcalled Uh, the question… ^ up there.

That’s why I thought it was odd you were just rephrasing it, but I guess you were saying, “Incidentally…”

Terrorism is a way for a few nutjobs (one word for it) to use fear and intimidation to influence a larger force. It is a tactic whereby a relatively small group can accomplish much. The French resistance was a terrorist group during WW2 that kept the Germans enough off balance to affect the outcome of the war. The organizational structure is of small cells that know of each other, but may have never met or know each other personally. That way if one cell is compromised, the rest can continue to operate without occupying forces knowing who they are, nor what their target is. There have been terrorists all through history. To the Britons, our Country was founded by a bunch of terrorists.

i wouldn’t say the American rebels were terrorists, their mutiny succeeded because of foreign aid. Kinda like how the communist revolutions such as Vietnam and Korea succeeded via aid from Soviet Union or China.

The Irish rebels on the other hand did produce terrorists.

Sure, I do. The less you dick around in their affairs the less likely it is that you become a target. We had no successful terror attacks here but we did become a bit more compromised since we started to support the US in their illegal war in Afghanistan.

We need to find out the root causes and do something about them too. Short-term police-style action is not good enough.