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Politics : Support the French! Viva Democracy! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (4583)	1/13/2004 8:06:52 AM
From: Dale Baker	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 7834

Once we have some time for people to form some perspective, the early 21st century hysteria about terrorism will probably be seen as just that, an overreaction that served the terrorists' ends because their "victims" mostly scared the beejeezus out of themselves without the terrorists doing much, compared to the impact they had. The potential damage today's terrorists can inflict is likely to be very limited. Sure, someone may get a nuke or blow an entire refinery, but that threat has been with us for decades now and will always be there. In practice, most terrorist campaigns inflict a few minor wounds that have almost no tangible effect on commerce. The 2001 recession was underway before 9/11 and ended very soon afterward. WTC was a terrible tragedy - but did it stop the US economy from hitting the rebound cycle as usual? European nations have experienced many more smaller attacks over the years. Hasn't stopped them from moving forward. So my biggest fear is experts and leaders going beyond prudent counterterrorist steps and freaking everyone out so badly that commerce is hurt without anyone firing a shot. Al Qaeda just has to send an E-mail or two to put the whole USG into coniption fits. We always have a choice how we react. Partisan extremists say we have to do what we do today or DO NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!! but that is horseshit. The rest of the world, victims of terrorism decades before 9/11, mostly know that.