How to Win the War on Terror
From DownsizeDC:
Terrorists aim to cause fear, and by feeling fear we’ve given them what they want.
We believe it’s possible to win the war on terror instantly. All we have to do is stop being afraid, and stop acting out of fear.
This makes sense not only in terms of defeating the terrorists’ intentions, but also in terms of managing the terrorist threat.
To us, America’s fear of terrorism is like a cat being afraid of a mouse. Actually, it’s worse than that, because all the terrorists in all the world amount to no more than an anemic mosquito on the snout of a whale. The fact is . . .
We’re in far more danger from our own cars than we are from terrorism.
Nearly 800,000 people have died in car accidents in the last twenty years. During that time there have been exactly 2 Islamic terrorist attacks on U.S. soil, with less than 3,000 total fatalities. That’s more than 200 TIMES as many Americans dying in their cars as at the hands of Islamic terrorism. And yet . . .
We’ve turned the whole world upside down in response to the two terrorist attacks. We’ve launched a pre-emptive invasion, created vast new bureaucracies, shredded the Bill of Rights, compounded regulations, spent hundreds of billions of dollars, and disrupted travel and commerce. But no one is suggesting that we do 200 times as much to address the driving risk, which is 200 times greater.
Can we conclude from this that American’s are brave when it comes to their cars, but cowardly when it comes to Islamic terrorism?
We think the proper conclusion is that Americans have VASTLY OVERREACTED to the threat of Islamic terrorism, and that the politicians have encouraged and exploited this overreaction to expand the power of government.
If Ernest Hemingway had the right definition of courage — “grace under pressure” — then our country has shown little grace in the face of not much pressure. To us, the official government War on Terror amounts to one giant national cringe.
We can do better, with less effort and more grace.
There is really only one way to win a war on terrorism. Stop being afraid!
Achieving this victory does not require large armies, pre-emptive invasions, illegal spying, torture, detention camps, Kangaroo courts, or multi-billion dollar Congressional appropriations. Neither does it require us to shred the Bill of Rights or the Geneva Conventions. All it requires is a little backbone. And a little common sense.
The minute the first politician proposed the first imposition on the Bill of Rights, or the first call to invade Iraq, or the first request for large new bureaucracies to fight the anemic mosquito, the terrorists won, and we lost.
And they’ve been winning, and we’ve been losing, ever since.
Can we stop being afraid?
Can you?