{"id":10142,"date":"2006-08-24T15:43:10","date_gmt":"2006-08-24T22:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2006\/08\/24\/how-about-a-real-war-on-terror.html"},"modified":"2006-08-24T15:43:10","modified_gmt":"2006-08-24T22:43:10","slug":"how_about_a_rea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/08\/24\/how_about_a_rea.html","title":{"rendered":"How about a real<\/i> War on Terror?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n<\/div>\n

As in … not giving in to Terror<\/a> (and, in so doing, not giving in to the Terrorists)<\/p>\n

\n

The point of terrorism is to cause terror, sometimes to further a political goal and sometimes out of sheer hatred. The people terrorists kill are not the targets; they are collateral damage. And blowing up planes, trains, markets or buses is not the goal; those are just tactics. The real targets of terrorism are the rest of us: the billions of us who are not killed but are terrorized because of the killing. The real point of terrorism is not the act itself, but our reaction to the act.<\/p>\n

And we’re doing exactly what the terrorists want.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

FDR famously said, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” Which, perhaps is an overstatement, but contains a key truth (fear can do us as much damage as those who instill fear in us, if not more), and is rhetoric diametrically opposed<\/em> by what our current leadership and politicians tell us.<\/p>\n

\n

Imagine for a moment what would have happened if they had blown up 10 planes. There would be canceled flights, chaos at airports, bans on carry-on luggage, world leaders talking tough new security measures, political posturing and all sorts of false alarms as jittery people panicked. To a lesser degree, that’s basically what’s happening right now.<\/p>\n

Our politicians help the terrorists every time they use fear as a campaign tactic. The press helps every time it writes scare stories about the plot and the threat. And if we’re terrified, and we share that fear, we help. All of these actions intensify and repeat the terrorists’ actions, and increase the effects of their terror.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The problem is that fear serves both the terrorists and (if they choose to exploit it) those in power. A fearful populace can be dangerous, in that it demands action. But it also can be more easily rallied\/herded in a given direction.<\/p>\n

There are things we can do, must do, to stop terrorists. Becoming a nation (or world) of paranoids, demanding our leaders provide us with security at all costs, is not one of them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As in … not giving in to Terror (and, in so doing, not giving in to the Terrorists) The point of terrorism is to cause terror, sometimes to further…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homeland-security"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":128873,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/17\/it-takes-two-to-terrorize.html","url_meta":{"origin":10142,"position":0},"title":"It takes two to terrorize","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 17-Nov-15 2:45am","format":false,"excerpt":"Terrorism works because we allow it to work, because we allow an intentional, unanticipated act of violence to seize us with fear and drive us to emotional overreaction.'We are richer, and mightier, and far more deadly than any of our terrorist foes could dream of being. And yet we happily\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9592,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/05\/30\/terror_in_holly.html","url_meta":{"origin":10142,"position":1},"title":"Terror in Hollywood America!","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 30-May-06 7:14am","format":false,"excerpt":"Bruce Schneier has been soliciting Hollywood-style terror attack ideas. For a while now, I have been writing about our penchant for \"movie-plot threats\": terrorist fears based on very specific attack...","rel":"","context":"In "Homeland Security"","block_context":{"text":"Homeland Security","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/homeland-security"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33201,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/04\/16\/terrorists-fail-when-you-fail-to-be-terrorized.html","url_meta":{"origin":10142,"position":2},"title":"Terrorists fail when you fail to be terrorized","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 16-Apr-13 7:50am","format":false,"excerpt":"This, from Bruce Schneier:'Terrorism, even the terrorism of radical Islamists and right-wing extremists and lone actors all put together, is not an \"existential threat\" against our nation. Even the events of 9\/11, as horrific as they were, didn't do existential damage to our nation. Our society is more robust than\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":133930,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/07\/21\/wait-we-can-bring-al-qaeda-terrorists-to-civilian-trial-on-us-territory.html","url_meta":{"origin":10142,"position":3},"title":"Wait, we can bring Al Qa'eda terrorists to civilian trial on US territory?","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 21-Jul-17 4:24pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Because for the last eight years (and several years before that), it was the determined position of the GOP in general (and among many Dems, too), and both Donald Trump and Jeff Sessions in particular, that such a thing was way, way, way too dangerous. A terror suspect might escape\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":983,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/10\/28\/terrorism_by_an.html","url_meta":{"origin":10142,"position":4},"title":"Terrorism by any other name is … a blank check?","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 28-Oct-01 2:33pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The ACLU goes into the new, broad definition of terrorism in the newly-passed USA PATRIOT Act (somebody spent way too much time fiddling up that acronym). Even though the 9-11...","rel":"","context":"In "Homeland Security"","block_context":{"text":"Homeland Security","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/homeland-security"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":128799,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/11\/14\/how-not-to-defeat-terrorism.html","url_meta":{"origin":10142,"position":5},"title":"How not to defeat terrorism","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 14-Nov-15 2:31pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Find someone to bomb, find someone to shell, find someone to send troops to stomp on, without a plan for what happens after.http:\/\/www.stonekettle.com\/2015\/11\/the-price-of-civilization.htmlI mean, it's not like we haven't followed that course before.Also ways high on the list of how not to defeat terrorism:1. Assume that terrorists are only out\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/5020.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/5020.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/5020.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10142\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}