Human Nature Trumps Homeland Security

netbuzz writes "Security expert Bruce Schneier suggests this morning that 'there might not be a solution' to our post-9/11 penchant for making domestic anti-terrorism decisions based on the basic human desire to cover one's backside. He might be right. But shouldn't we at least try to figure out a better way? For example, wouldn't 'Commonsense Homeland Security' be a winning political banner, not a risky one? "

Comments

How To Stop Terrorism

[Anonymous Coward]

Terrorism isn't the product of random deranged individuals; it is bankrolled by foreign governments. Saddam Hussein, for example, used to pay $30,000 to the family of each Palestinian suicide bomber. For another example, the governments of many countries, including Palestine, Iran, and Saudi Arabia, teach lessons that extol terror in their government-funded schools. The only way to be secure against terror is to destroy it at its roots -- and that means seriously debilitating the governments that are paying for it.

If this is done, random individuals may still carry out terror, but such random terror will be much less well organized and much less of a threat.

Re:Causes, not symptoms

[Dr Kool, PhD]

Yeah you're right, if we just sit at home and do nothing then terrorists will leave us alone. That idea worked great on September 10th, 2001 so let's try it again.

Only TWO ways to win the war on terror, take your pick:

1) Kill all Islamic terrorists.

2) Convert to Islam.

the media only sells them what they want

[misanthrope101]

No, the people are the reason behind CYA security, and the media only reflects that. People want the illusion of safety, and they get pissy if you point out that they're being irrational. The flu kills almost 7 times more Americans per year than were killed on 9/11 but you get treated like a barbarian for pointing that out, or like a simpleton for suggesting that our financial outlays should be proportional to the risk. Looking at the flu alone, and even disregarding TB, AIDS, and other disease, terrorism could never compete mortality-wise.

We could spend 1/10 as much as we're spending on the GWOT on child nutrition instead and save more American lives than the GWOT is protecting, and that's even granting the debatable conclusion that the GWOT is actually protecting, not endangering, lives. But 9/11 made Americans feel vulnerable and queasy, and that trumps child nutrition, public sanitation, immunizations for the poor, or any other project that could help a far greater number of Americans. Yes, the media feeds into this, the same way circuses feed into our love of circuses. But it isn't as if the population is intelligent and cool-headed and the media is swooping in to dumb us down. We get the media we choose. If people were reading the Economist and Harper's instead of People and TV Guide we still wouldn't have a perfect world, but it would reflect a more intelligent and rational citizenry.

Re:Causes, not symptoms

[rainer_d]

> Is recruiting the main goal of a terrorist group?

Bingo.
Did it cross your mind that both the current administration and the terrorist groups profit most from the status quo?
What would Bush Jr. be without the terrorist threat? He'd be only a footnote in history.
Same with Mr. Bin-Laden et.al.
They'd be just bumpkins in the nowhere.
A similar situation exists in the Israel/Hamas conflict: hardliners on both sides make quite a good living with the status-quo. In a peaceful Israel-Palestine coexistence, hardcore-nationalists (on both sides) would have no place, to political agenda, no power and thus also no influence and no money.
Guess how likely a political solution is going to be found with these people still in charge?
Same with the Al Quaeda et.al: they will stay in "business" for as long as they can - which in this part of the world means _very_ long.
Think decades.

Either the international community finds a cheaper way to fight these people, or we'll be all bankrupt in a couple of years - based on the current spending-rate, you can do your own calculations as to when exactly this will be.

cheers,
Rainer