
Refuse to be terrorized (2006) - iwwr
http://www.wired.com/politics/security/commentary/securitymatters/2006/08/71642
======
acabal
Good article but it'll never be read by those who need to read it most.

Unfortunately terror has now been institutionalized. The TSA is a massive
bureaucracy that generates jobs and cash flow. It's not something that will
ever be dismantled overnight. That's not even mentioning the political
convenience it provides: with it politicians can keep us afraid, thus getting
our votes when they promise to protect us.

It goes deeper than just fear of terrorism though. Having spent the last few
years traveling the world and seeing how other people live, it's always
shocking to return to the States to see how afraid everybody is of even the
smallest things. Fear seems to have become a centerpiece in the American
psyche, and long before 9/11. We even raise our kids to be afraid (see some of
the vitriolic responses freerangekids.wordpress.com gets in response to advice
like, "It's OK to let your kid ride the bus alone"). Fear of mundane things
giving you cancer; existential fear about the economy, which many of us don't
even understand and as individuals, have no control over; fear of walking the
streets alone at night; fear of getting sick if we don't use antibacterial
soap after each bathroom trip. Fear of someone spiking your Tylenol.
Uncontrollable fear of a country across the ocean maybe having WMD's.

No, fear of terrorism is just the latest in a laundry list of things Americans
have scared themselves with. Until we learn to control that basic fear
response, the TSA will still be around and people will still be scared of
sitting next to a dark-skinned man kneeling in prayer.

~~~
rick888
The US is a more aware society. Just because they are talked about in the
news, doesn't make someone afraid, just more aware of the dangers in society.

"fear of walking the streets alone at night"

It depends on where you live. If I'm in Detroit, then yes, I will be a little
more apprehensive about walking on the streets alone at night. It's just
common sense.

"Fear of someone spiking your Tylenol"

If someone hacked into your servers and destroyed data through a weakness,
would you fix the weakness or just restore the data and go on with your day?
The Tylenol weakness has been fixed. It's the smart thing to do.

"Uncontrollable fear of a country across the ocean maybe having WMD's."

I love how you slipped this one in here. I actually would love for the US to
stop all military actions and then have a major terrorist attack. I know I
would be the first to blame all of the people who said we were too "paranoid".

It's funny because the reason people can sit and talk about all of these
things we don't need is because all of the precautions we have in place are
working. Kind of like the person that's bi-polar that stops taking their meds
because "I feel fine, why should I keep taking them"?

"Until we learn to control that basic fear response, the TSA will still be
around and people will still be scared of sitting next to a dark-skinned man
kneeling in prayer."

Until the people in the middle east get their shit together, we will need it.
We don't know how many attacks have been prevented because of high security
(IE: not even bothering to try).

~~~
acabal
Your view is exactly the kind of fear I'm referring to.

Re. Tylenol, 7 people died in an isolated area, and the response was national
legislation and money and materials spent tamper-proofing every drug made
since then. People are still scared of Halloween candy being tampered with
(which in and of itself has never been recorded as happening). By that logic,
we should have outlawed cars years ago; more than 7 people die _every day_ in
accidents.

Re. military action, the occupation of Iraq had little to do with stopping
"terrorists." If you recall, we invaded because of our fears of WMD's--which
of course, turned out not to exist. You would also do well to recall that we
_have_ had terrorist attacks since we invaded: remember the shoe bomber, or
the underwear bomber, who both successfully smuggled explosives into a plane
after military action had begun? Only their own incompetence and the alertness
of the passengers prevented tragedy--the military had nothing to do with it.
To suggest otherwise is, frankly, simple ignorance.

Finally, I'm reminded of a Simpsons quote: For $100, I can sell you a rock
that prevents tiger attacks. It really works: I've never been attacked by a
tiger since I bought my own rock!

~~~
jmspring
"Re. military action, the occupation of Iraq had little to do with stopping
"terrorists." If you recall, we invaded because of our fears of WMD's--which
of course, turned out not to exist."

No, we invaded Iraq for oil and because a certain Commander CodPiece was a bit
too big for his britches. Remember all those oil contracts that were put into
place before we invaded? WMDs were an excuse, not the reason.

Many years later, the US is still bleeding money and lives because of this
idiotic decision.

~~~
shareme
No, look at the Vice President and whose pocket he was in. Guess who the
largest percentage of contracts for Iraq was? Iraq War was a jobs program for
the industrial war machine framework. Not oil..gov contracts worth billions

------
cstavish
It amazes me that people freak out when they see "Muslim-looking" people on
flights. The politically-correct response is along the lines of "OMG That is
highly prejudicial!", but that's irrelevant. From a purely practical
perspective, why would a terrorist leader send an attacker whom many Americans
immediately view as "suspicious", when he could send someone who appears more
"normal"?

On another note, people these days still puff out their chests and say the
terrorists couldn't change our way of life. Good one. Another fallacious line
of reasoning is that we can destroy terrorism by military action alone. Tell
that to the teenage boy who just lost his family to an errant US bomb in his
Afghan village and now has a massive amount of pent up rage, and nothing to
lose.

If the conditions are right, terrorism can always regenerate itself. The way
to fight it is to alter the conditions. To do this we must understand why
people hate America. Contrary to popular belief, it's not that we are secular
or free. Osama bin Laden himself asked that if he wanted to attack secular,
democratic states, why didn't he attack Sweden? I'm obviously not condoning
terrorism, but the key to beating it is understanding it on at least a basic
level. Unfortunately, our leaders in the past 10 years have been more inclined
to drop bombs than to know the enemy.

edit: I'm not saying military action is inappropriate. It clearly has been
effective in many cases.

~~~
rick888
yeah, well, 9/11 still happened with people that didn't appear "normal".

"The way to fight it is to alter the conditions. To do this we must understand
why people hate America."

We should bend over backwards to make the terrorists happy so they don't
attack us? What if they hate us because we aren't part of their religion..is
the answer to make the US a Muslim country? Negotiating with terrorists that
clearly aren't interested in negotiating is not what we should be doing here.

~~~
Tharkun
Nice flamebait. I'll resist the urge to resort to profanities.

You seem to be very much stuck in an "us" and "them" mindset. You also seem to
be missing several things. No one said anything about bending over backwards.
As for negotiating, who exactly is there to negotiate with in the first place?
You seem to be under the mistaken impression that there's some kind of top
secret terrorist government hiding somewhere, and that "they" are secretly
hatching evil plots to destroy "America". (Because apparently America is the
only country that's ever been targetted by terrorists? Get over yourself.)

And who suggested making the US a "Muslim country"? The very notion is
ridiculous. The US claims to be a "free" country after all, with freedom of
religion. There's nothing stopping Muslims from worshipping Allah as much as
they please in the US. Nor should there be. And there sure as hell shouldn't
be anything to stop "them" from getting on planes, looking at their watches,
praying, growing big beards or walking around in whatever outfits they damn
well please.

~~~
rick888
"Nice flamebait. I'll resist the urge to resort to profanities."

Nice way to get out of a discussion.

"As for negotiating, who exactly is there to negotiate with in the first
place?"

You said we should try to figure out why they are angry with us..as if it's
the fault of the US for getting attacked (blaming the victim).

"You seem to be under the mistaken impression that there's some kind of top
secret terrorist government hiding somewhere, and that "they" are secretly
hatching evil plots to destroy "America". (Because apparently America is the
only country that's ever been targetted by terrorists? Get over yourself.)"

Nice flamebait. In Many other countries, they have full-on profiling with
armed guards on each plane. It seems to work pretty well on the middle east.

"There's nothing stopping Muslims from worshipping Allah as much as they
please in the US. Nor should there be. And there sure as hell shouldn't be
anything to stop "them" from getting on planes, looking at their watches,
praying, growing big beards or walking around in whatever outfits they damn
well please."

I never said they shouldn't be stopped. However, if there are a high number of
attempted attacks and the description of the attackers match the type of
people coming onto the plain, the TSA should be allowed to question/detain
those people.

It's this type of thinking that stops a newspaper from putting a description
of a criminal because it's not politically correct.

------
thyrsus
Five years latter, the U.S. has institutionalized a terrified attitude, at
least with respect to air travel. At this point, the only thing that might
compel me to put up with the useless, degrading, indignity of U.S. air travel
would be a dire family obligation - like a funeral - which I couldn't meet in
any other way. I am appalled that my fellow citizens demand this abasement.

~~~
cema

      I am appalled that my fellow citizens demand this abasement.
    

Many demand the opposite, but there is no political mechanism that would
listen to them specifically. They need to convince the rest first, then it can
be done.

------
jamesbkel
This has always been one of my biggest issues with "counter-terrorism". If the
costs of fighting terrorism outweigh the damage that a genuine terrorist group
could inflict... who really wins?

As a US citizen, I don't doubt that _some_ of our spending has directly
stopped particular terrorist plots. However, my point for the past ~10 years
has been: they [terrorists] are tricking us into burning money chasing them
around the world. If we had invested a fraction of this to take care of people
who have suffered from non-terrorist causes we would result with a net
benefit.[1]

I want to reiterate that there undoubtedly threats to be addressed, but
sometime I wish that politicians (and a fair amount of the general population)
would leave the whack-a-mole terrorism game alone, take their (our) coin home
and find something better to do.

[1] Admit, this is an assumption. But I don't think it's a huge leap.

~~~
coffeedrinker
>they [terrorists] are tricking us into burning money chasing them around the
world

The terrorists are not the ones gaining financially and they are not the ones
tricking us.

~~~
jamesbkel
I didn't mean to say that terrorists are gaining financially or that the
"burn[t] money" goes to them. I'd be surprised if that's a real goal.

My point was that regardless of where the money ends up, if it's
misappropriated then it's a waste.

~~~
coffeedrinker
I understood your point, and don't disagree.

Terrorism is overblown as an excuse to spend the money in ways to benefit
certain industries.

------
Cyph0n
A satisfying read indeed. Schneier hits the target right in the middle. I feel
exactly the same way about this terrorism. Even though I personally haven't
been to the US, what I see in the news, in movies and on television is enough
to tell me that Americans are indeed living in fear.

However, I do not blame the American (and other) people for hating us
(Muslims). I blame the media. I blame the politicians. I blame the terrorists.
We may also disagree on the definition of a terrorist. I may tell you that an
Afghan militant defending his country and his people against invasion by
shooting at American soldiers (this differs from taking innocent lives) is not
a terrorist, but a soldier, regardless of his nationality, or who the soldiers
he's shooting at are.

But in the end, people, Muslims or otherwise, who shamelessly attack, bomb or
torture innocent people, people who did them no harm, nor presented any threat
to them, nor attacked their country or their people, are terrorists.

Indeed, what is happening today in America and in several other countries
regarding escalating security measures and incessant leakage of threats is
simply the result of governments wanting to control their people (see "1984")
by using the media to their advantage.

I mean, seriously, think of the guy who tried to detonate a bomb located in
his shoe whilst in an plane. Why didn't he go to the toilet and detonate it
there? The terrorists I know from the media aren't that ignorant.

------
gegegege
This is years old, maybe submitter should mention that.

~~~
jdp23
Still incredibly relevant though. With Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) and others
confronting the TSA in the House, and last week's court decision requiring the
TSA to have a comment period, this issue's going to be heating up again.

~~~
Iv
Relevant, yes, this opinion was put forward by rational people just after the
9/11 : terrorists want terror, don't give them that. Ten years later (yeah,
9/11 happened ten years ago, I feel old) this sensible opinion is still
ignored.

------
RocknRolla
<quote> "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.</quote>

I know this is not going to be popular because Schneier is a crypto/security
God and all but I call B.S. on the above quote.

If you would have given any of the 9/11 terrorists or UBL a button and told
them they could wipe out the U.S. and everyone in it by just pressing the
button how quickly do you think they would do it? Or do you think they'd say
"Sorry, no-can-do. There won't be anyone left to terrorize."?

Their goal is not to terrorize/scare people. Their goal is the total
destruction of anyone or anybody that stands in the way of their total
domination.

~~~
splat
Their goal is to maximize destruction given the resources they have. If they
had a button that instantly destroy the US, of course they would press it. But
the fact is that they don't have such a button; they have very limited
resources. Their most efficient use of resources is to make random, very
visible and violent attacks and hope that our responses do even more damage.

~~~
RocknRolla
Huh? Just because they don't have said resources to kill everyone in the U.S.
doesn't mean it's not their ultimate goal... No one can say whether or not
they could eventually acquire those resources via rogue states.

UBL specifically stated that jihadist should NOT differentiate between
Military/Government and civillians.

------
blahedo
This was well understood nearly a century ago; an awful lot of people know
FDR's line that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself" but have never
thought about it and have no idea what it means.

------
michaelabe
I am really amazed how the whole world wants to ignore one simple fact that
until now costs us a lot of lives: (9/11 and many other terrorist attacks all
over the world) There is a group of people (mainy Muslim)that want all: Jews,
Americans, and "free" world countries to perish or convert the Islam (and if
not pay special "Muslim" taxes) This is not a conspiracy and this message is
played on national TV in many Muslim countries
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GvsNFWRbM0&feature=share](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GvsNFWRbM0&feature=share)
what pisses me off is that most of the word ignores this completely and blames
Israel and the US for it because of our foreign policy. What scares me most is
that it seems to me like were back to the 1930s when Hitler was talking about
killing most non Aryan races and the whole world not caring and doing anything
about it. So wake the fuck up and realize that we do have a problem in hand,
and it's not a joke many people have died and will continue dying terrorism is
a world problem not only American, there were dozens of terrorist attacks
outside the US, sorry even more then the US. Any ways wake up people and stop
being scared of saying the obvious.

------
Eliezer
But if we refuse to be terrorized, the terrorists have already won!

~~~
Raphael
The refusalists will have won.

------
bediger
A thousand up votes! Keep calm, and carry on.

------
wtvanhest
There are roughly 20 Million Flights world wide per year.

During the period of those 5 incidents, there were over 220,000 flights. (4
days)

Yes, it would suck to be on one of those flights, but your chances are
extremely low. 00.0023% of flights are impacted. You have less than a 1 in
43,000 chance of being on one of those flights.

But... if you are on one of those flights where there is suspected terrorist
activity, at a rate of 1 actual attack attempt per year (I couldn't get an
exact number, but I bet that is pretty close) Your chances of being killed
quickly become much, much higher at 1 in 365.

I know I will be downgraded because people don't agree with me, but the
reality is that terrorism is real, and if I am on a plane, I'd rather them be
safe then sorry.

Doing so makes attacks much less likely to succeed which will help reduce
attacks.

~~~
henrikschroder
> but the reality is that terrorism is real

Many things are real. Lightning strikes. Car accidents. Meteorites to the
head. Tsunamis. Smoking. Fat.

Dying because of a terrorist attack is way, way, way, way down on the list of
stuff you are likely to die from, so the only rational thing to do is to worry
about the stuff ABOVE it on the list. Like driving. Or eating right. Or not
smoking. Get your priorities right.

~~~
SonicSoul
so you wouldn't worry about lightning storms in your sleep, but if you are out
in the field during one you'll probably take some precautions? maybe get out
from under the tallest tree? You probably wouldn't completely ignore it.

~~~
georgieporgie
Lightning precautions are based on the testable realities of physics. There is
no relation between that and the voodoo pseudo-security that is the TSA and
public 'security' in general.

~~~
wtvanhest
This is true, it is hard to prove if what the TSA does is actually preventing
terrorist attacks. Just because it is not proven does not mean it is not
working.

------
huhtenberg
That's all great, but consider a situation.

I get on the plane and sit next to a guy who avoids eye contact, does not
respond to Hi and then starts praying, seemingly detached from the reality.
Shall I just ignore this and refuse to be terrorized?

I will tell you more. As someone who rode on a subway train that was next to
the one blown up in a terrorist attack, I _will_ walk out of a coffee shop if
I see a person leaving a bag behind and stepping outside. I did that when I
was single and I certainly still do it now when I have two kids. If there is a
sliver of probability that I can be killed due to my inaction, I _will_ act
and I will do my best to avoid that risk. If it takes de-boarding someone from
a plane, so be it.

~~~
tommyudo
>I get on the plane and sit next to a guy who avoids eye contact, does not
respond to Hi and then starts praying, seemingly detached from the reality.
Shall I just ignore this and refuse to be terrorized?

That depends. Are his prayers Christian prayers, or Muslim prayers?

~~~
wtvanhest
Not really, I think it would be strange regardless.

