<story><title>Why Aren&apos;t There More Terrorist Attacks?</title><url>http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2010/05/why_arent_there.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>vaksel</author><text>actually I think the smaller terrorist attacks would be much more effective at instilling terror.&lt;p&gt;remember the dc sniper? After the first couple of people were killed, everyone started running in zig zags everywhere they went.&lt;p&gt;blow up a bus or a train once a week, and you&apos;ll shut down most cities. It doesn&apos;t even have to be a huge bomb. A few fire crackers that kill/wound 1-2 people and the media will do it&apos;s job in making people think it&apos;s the end of the world.&lt;p&gt;and if they can&apos;t get bombs/firecrackers, they can always buy a few automatic weapons at any gun store, and open up on a few trains/buses/malls. Same effect without the boom.&lt;p&gt;Terrorism is just overhyped, since media has nothing better to do.&lt;p&gt;Take 2009..let&apos;s list all the terrorist attacks in the United States:&lt;p&gt;2/4/2009 - Chairman of the Arkansas State Medical Board wounded in a car bomb.(probably abortion related)&lt;p&gt;5/25/2009 - someone blows up a starbucks bench(0 casualties)&lt;p&gt;6/1/2009 - a muslim shoots up a recruiting station(1 dead, 1 wounded)&lt;p&gt;12/25/2009 - the underwear bomber(0 casualties)&lt;p&gt;So a total of 4 attacks, 1 dead, 2 wounded. And none of them were organized, terrorists aren&apos;t the evil geniuses that the media paints them as. In fact most terrorists. are basically just wannabees who&apos;ve watched the news and want to be part of the &quot;war&quot;.&lt;p&gt;You have a bigger chance of getting killed by a falling tree or getting hit by lighting, than you do of getting hurt in a terrorist attack.&lt;p&gt;Terrorism is just hype, it&apos;s a small criminal matter, that&apos;s not worth the trillions the United States is spending to fight it. It&apos;s all just security theater....make people think something is being done, when in reality nothing they can do can stop any further attacks. But the &quot;terrorists are coming to kill you!&quot; sure does work in getting the public to agree to anything you want.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>anamax</author><text>&amp;#62; they can always buy a few automatic weapons at any gun store&lt;p&gt;Actually, you can&apos;t, at least not in the US, and that&apos;s been true for decades.&lt;p&gt;Thinking that you can is like thinking that you can buy a race car at the local dealer because you see similar looking cars with the same name on TV.&lt;p&gt;&amp;#62; Take 2009..let&apos;s list all the terrorist attacks in the United States:&lt;p&gt;The Fort Hood shooting, which killed 13 should be on that list.  So much for &quot;all&quot;.</text></comment>
<story><title>Why Aren&apos;t There More Terrorist Attacks?</title><url>http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2010/05/why_arent_there.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>vaksel</author><text>actually I think the smaller terrorist attacks would be much more effective at instilling terror.&lt;p&gt;remember the dc sniper? After the first couple of people were killed, everyone started running in zig zags everywhere they went.&lt;p&gt;blow up a bus or a train once a week, and you&apos;ll shut down most cities. It doesn&apos;t even have to be a huge bomb. A few fire crackers that kill/wound 1-2 people and the media will do it&apos;s job in making people think it&apos;s the end of the world.&lt;p&gt;and if they can&apos;t get bombs/firecrackers, they can always buy a few automatic weapons at any gun store, and open up on a few trains/buses/malls. Same effect without the boom.&lt;p&gt;Terrorism is just overhyped, since media has nothing better to do.&lt;p&gt;Take 2009..let&apos;s list all the terrorist attacks in the United States:&lt;p&gt;2/4/2009 - Chairman of the Arkansas State Medical Board wounded in a car bomb.(probably abortion related)&lt;p&gt;5/25/2009 - someone blows up a starbucks bench(0 casualties)&lt;p&gt;6/1/2009 - a muslim shoots up a recruiting station(1 dead, 1 wounded)&lt;p&gt;12/25/2009 - the underwear bomber(0 casualties)&lt;p&gt;So a total of 4 attacks, 1 dead, 2 wounded. And none of them were organized, terrorists aren&apos;t the evil geniuses that the media paints them as. In fact most terrorists. are basically just wannabees who&apos;ve watched the news and want to be part of the &quot;war&quot;.&lt;p&gt;You have a bigger chance of getting killed by a falling tree or getting hit by lighting, than you do of getting hurt in a terrorist attack.&lt;p&gt;Terrorism is just hype, it&apos;s a small criminal matter, that&apos;s not worth the trillions the United States is spending to fight it. It&apos;s all just security theater....make people think something is being done, when in reality nothing they can do can stop any further attacks. But the &quot;terrorists are coming to kill you!&quot; sure does work in getting the public to agree to anything you want.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>pwhelan</author><text>He doesn&apos;t argue that small attacks don&apos;t instill terror -- it doesn&apos;t serve the dual purposes of &quot;inspiring&quot; allies and donors while instilling fear in the target city/nation. Also, you must recall that you actually need people to blow up the bus, train, etc -- which is difficult to get in the US at least and they have to be able to continually do it.&lt;p&gt;I agree that terrorism is often over-hyped by the media, but that doesn&apos;t mean the threat is something to be ignored. The 4 pathetic attacks you bring up do show the current state of impotence, however we have to be vigilant. The opinions presented by many today would be quite different had Time Square been painted with blood.</text></comment>