If 43,000 people die in car accidents in the U. S. every year, why are we so worried about terrorism?

Question

Just think, that's 420,000 people in ten years. I hate politics and this sort of 'open to looney argument' question, but I will choose a best answer. It's just been bugging me. Try to see all the aspects of a situation.

That's one million, two hundred and sixty thousand people in thirty years, right. Am I the only person you thinks the enemy might be us?

(I mean 430,000 in ten years. Sorry I asked now.)

Could we reduce car accidents by 50% If so, how? How much would it cost?

Answer 1

You compare auto accidents with murder of our citizens? Seek therapy.

Answer 2

It may be the truth, but newspapers and news on TV make terrorism a more big of a deal because it happens less often. Car crashes often happen, and aren't such a big "impact" on breaking news anymore. People watching the news and reading the newspaper are more likely to notice these headlines and worry about the wrong ideas.

Answer 3

Accidents happen, but terrorism is deliberate - it's like the difference between someone tripping down a flight of stairs and being pushed. What makes terrorism particularly scary for most people is that it's random - they don't care who they kill, just that as many people as possible die. People were murdered not for being bad people, but just being in the wrong place at the wrong time, going about their lives like we all do.

Answer 4

I don't worry about terroist, and neigther should anyone else. I never supported bush, nor will I ever. There is noone to fear except for the radical republicans. Yes terroism exsist everywhere, but it can't be stopped or controled like they try to convince you. If someone wants to hurt you bad enough, they will find away. So I say it's time to stop spending billions of dollars on looking to stop foriegn terror, and spend that money towards domestic programs that matter. It's funny or rather sad actually, that the the amount of money that has been spent chasing an imaginary shadow in this war, could of funded our retirement system for years, could of provided health care to every us citizen for years, could of built enough schools for our children, could of rebuilt new orleans alot sooner, could of increased pay to out millitary, could of fed the hungry for years, could housed the homeless, could of paid for millions of college educations, could of been used for good....period. We are now in more of a deficet than ever before in American history, and its because of this imaginary protection they pretend we have. Sorry to get off subject, but my simple answer would be don't be brainwashed by the bush administration people....There is no war on terror, but rather a war upon ourselves that will eventually lead to our corruption.

Answer 5

terrorism is something can actually threaten a nation's government and society as well. car accidents are due to people's mistakes and are, to some extent, part of life. Terrorism can lead to thousands of people dying in one day such as 9/11

Answer 6

I've always thought the same. Worse, more people die of poverty every single day in africa, and thats not an accident, and no one cares.

I think fear-mongering has gotten the better of everyone, and the irony is, thats just what terroists want- for us to be too scared to do anything!

Answer 7

really the reason the authorities and citizens are worried about terrorism is terrorist attacks are increasingly deadly. their goal is to, as the namesake says, cause terror as a means to an end, and to accomplish this they tend to try to kill as many people as possible as spectacularly as possible. as technology increases, so do to does the deadliness of acts of terror. it used to be simple explosives under the clothes...now it's jumbo jets brimming with fuel, anthrax, and roadside bombs with high-power explosives and armor slashing shrapnel capable of tearing armored trucks and light tanks to shreds. what's next is coming and likely sooner than our complacency allows us to expect.

all it takes is one biological, chemical, or radiological attack and suddenly hundreds of thousands if not millions die in a very short period of time. not to mention an actual nuclear attack from all those missing soviet weapons or just one bought from north korea whose sole exported commodity is weapons to anyone willing to pay.

we're not in great shape as far as security...and no one has the will to change that because they think preventing auto accidents is a more important use of resources than preventing terrorist attacks. sounds like reason to worry to me.

they have the funding, the expertise, and the means and only have to beat the system once to kill countless people or cause enough damage and fear to send our economy into a recession.

seems only logical that we should do our damnedest to stop them on all fronts.

unless you'd rather we just take all the funding from the FBI, CIA, coast guard, military, border patrol, police etc. and just spend it on highway safety programs instead.

i think, and your question illustrates this point, that people have become too complacent about the threat. there's lots of theories, but 9-11 was preventable...there was just a lack of public vigilance and a lack of political will and capital that spans not just this administration but many prior administrations.

hope this helps you see the importance of preventing terrorist attacks in the US.

Answer 8

People have to drive. It's a risk that is worth taking. It's just the way society works nowadays. But people don't have to drive airplanes into the WTC. That's something wholly different.

Answer 9

Because it's hard to get riled up against cars. Here's a speech from bush, "altered:"

They want to overthrow existing governments in many CAR-LOVING countries, such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan. They want to drive FORD out of the Middle East. They want to drive BICYCLES and PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION out of vast regions of Asia and Africa.

now that doesn't make any sense, from a political standpoint...

These AUTOMOBILES kill not merely to end lives, but to disrupt and end a way of life. With every atrocity, they hope that America grows fearful, retreating from the world and forsaking our friends. They stand against us, because we stand in their way

Answer 10

Because deaths by terrorism are in addition to all the other deaths, not instead of. It is built into us to want to survive so we will naturally want to stop anyone or thing that wants to kill us. This is why we wear seat belts, use preventative medicine, etc.

Answer 11

Oil, Bush's paranoia and the military-industrial complex. World 'restructuring' and 'nation-building'. Post-Cold War politics.