This hooey about bathtubs, car accidents, the flu, etc.,
has no real comparison to the current threat from
terrorists. The harm brought about by these things are
incidental or accidental. We have taken steps to mitigate
& limit the harm for each of them. As noted already, some
harm is beyond control as the costs to eradicate the harm
far outweigh the benefits.
How many of the dangers they posed resulted in the
slaughter of 3,000+ people & many hundreds of billions in
economic damage in the matter of a few hours?
All of the points you, Nadine, LB & others have made
correctly point out that terrorists are obviously a unique
threat consciously made by demented humans totally focused
on our demise physically & economically. The harm brought
about by terrorists is intentional. That they are fanatics
willing to give their lives committing horrific atrocities
makes them very dangerous to free & open societies.
In one terrible incident (or a series of coordinated
attacks) terrorists could destroy a major city (or many
thousands in multiple sites) with a horrific slaughter of
innocent people & dramatically impact economies globally.
IMO, to bury our heads in the sand & pretend the threat
won't get worse will play right into the terrorists hands.
A limited or so called "proportional" response will be
seen as weakness & not result in deterring enough of them.
The likelihood of any of their boogeymen to achieve the
same outcome would be for a pandemic to occur in spite of
our global attempts to monitor & prevent them.
FWIW, you will never change kholt's mind. Even when her
original POV is shown to be wrong or lacking merit, she
just nuances, massages & obfuscates her position until you
give up because you no longer understand what she is
talking about, or her position has significantly morphed
into something she can claim was correct all along. JMHO |
