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Our leaders, particularly those on the right, spend a lot of time using terrorism to frighten us for political gain. In response to this generated fear, the government has passed hundreds of new regulations and restrictions, making all of our lives more difficult and less free. It has also led us to spend trillions of dollars and launch two nearly decade-old wars causing scores of deaths and a devastating effect on our economy. We have been fooled and taken advantage of for years by our leaders and those that have had the most to gain from this fear: our defense contractors. But the rarely told truth is that terrorism is not a threat that should concern most people. To put this in perspective, you are 5 times more likely to die from having a hernia than from a terrorist attack and 17 times more likely to die walking down the street (www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/09/71743). You are around 140 times more likely to die from a car accident than from terrorism (www.car-accidents.com/pages/stats.htm). With this kind of relative threat from driving, why is there no War Against Car Accidents? One would think that the government would be placing new elaborate restrictions on driving every few months like lowering speed limits, widening lanes, or putting more police on the roads. But, as we all know, all the fear mongering is focused on terrorism.
It’s amazing to hear all the leaders on the right line up to parrot the familiar detainee news story that we should be really afraid of any terrorist stepping foot onto American soil. It’s like they think these guys are superheroes or something. Like by their very presence we are all in danger. Once again, they are trying to take advantage of our fears for political gain. The detainees are going to be locked up in Supermax Federal Prisons which no one has ever escaped from (www.supermaxed.com/Federal-SM-Page.htm). Unless one really believes they have superpowers, fear of their lockup in Federal Prison is irrational. But as we have already touched on, fear of terrorism is more irrational than being afraid of walking down the street or driving.
The right's political strategy has been simple. They have spent a great deal of time, money, and energy building up this false threat of terrorism. Then they claim that Democrats are "soft on terror" because they don't support expensive, militaristic, and sometimes radical departures from domestic and international laws (torture, rendition, warrantless wiretapping, and secret trials to name a few) to combat their made up threat. The problem is that the media has not spent much time questioning this threat because fear also sells papers and brings TV viewers.
America will only win the "War on Terror" when we realize the truth. Luckily, time is the ultimate truth-serum. Just like the racist fears surrounding allowing interracial marriage perpetrated by the right a generation ago, today's realization is only a matter of time. The real question is, what threat will the right construct next after this one falls apart?
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