<<< perhaps the most damaging thing would be to the way we conduct ourselves. We could very well see anarchy, martial law, curtailment of civil liberties, gags on the media, any number of things I think we can't live without. They define us a country. In other words, the end of the US as we know it.>>>
The world is a dangerous place. You haven't mentioned Tsunamis, earthquakes, asteroids, flooding caused by melting ice caps not to mention drunk drivers that kill 50,000 in the US each year. What about drug dealers - what is the toll they cause - and, how about epidemics like SARS.
You are right when you say it is how we handle these things. Gen George Washington and General Dwight D. Eisenhower both of whom knew a little about war and both were Presidents of the United States with visions concerning who we are as a people. They both warned us against the Military - Industrial complex in their departing speeches. There are people with a vested interest in trying to keep us in a constant state of war.
One of these day, not that far into the future, we will be able to determine with fair degree of accuracy what are the likely odds of these catastrophic events happening (through regression analysis). The we can allocate the right amount of resources to each of these threats.
Right now, the resources go not necessarily to the likelest threat, but to the people that shout the loudest and who are able to scare us the most. |
