"Chilling" advice

When I recently received an e-mail titled "Chilling advice from an Israeli agent that we need to heed," my first thought was, "Great, another Internet prank." As it turns out, it's only half a prank -- this guy did not predict 9/11 or the London bombings; and the "imminent" attacks mentioned in the e-mail were actually his predictions from 2005. He also predicted that Bush would invade Iran and Syria (!).

The other half is a fairly informed and intelligent critique of our nation's response to terrorism. He writes that the Iraq War was a serious blunder, and will end up being worse than Vietnam. (I was surprised -- I expected him to be a Bush/Cheney supporter.) He also says what should be self-evident to nearly everyone: Airport security is a joke. A very expensive, wasteful and unnecessary joke.

What he doesn't ask is "why?" Why are we so frightened of dying in a terrorist attack, when such an event is so unlikely. Here are a few statistics derived from the National Safety Council:

You are 12,571 times more likely to die from cancer ...

You are 1048 times more likely to die from a car accident ...

You are eight times more likely to die from accidental electrocution ...

You are six times more likely to die from hot weather ...

... than from a terrorist attack.

Is this really worth getting so worked up about? Is it worth turning our country into a police state? My answer is: No. In fact, terrorism works when it scares us. Our panic and fear makes the terrorists very happy -- and it means terrorism will continue. To me, that is more chilling than anything else.