St. Pete for Peace
Rated • 3 reviews • terrorism • stpeteforpeace.org
As this graph shows, "terrorism" is a much smaller threat than some people would like us to believe. Even if America suffered a 9/11-style attack every week, the damage (in terms of lives, money, and productivity lost) would be far less than what we routinely suffer from tobacco and its purveyors. But damage, in the sense of destroying one's enemy, isn't the purpose of these attacks. Educated "terrorists" such as Osama bin Laden know that even the most spectacular acts of destruction have no chance of defeating a powerful, prosperous nation-state--let alone the most powerful, prosperous nation-state in the history of the world. His purpose, as he has stated many times in his writings and messages, is to cause the U.S. government to overreact and make costly, self-destructive mistakes (such as the invason of Iraq), setting us on the path of long-term decline. It's like an ant stinging an elephant and infuriating it to such a degree that it falls off a cliff. In this light, 9/11 was a trap, and our president fell right into it.
(Thanks to Marcus-Lycus for this picture.)
