All we seem to hear about these days is the threat of terrorism. Our lives have been turned upside down as the authorities wage war on the terrorist threat. The measures taken to combat this threat are all around us. In London you struggle to find a bin in a public area. There are no bins in the London Underground network.
As we check-in at our local airport we find ourselves in a massive queue. We have to arrive 2 hours early to cope with this. This makes a mockery of flight travel. As we proceed along this massive queue to the security gate we suffer the indignity of the full reveal. If they don’t like the cut of your jib, you may have the full body cavity search. The more fortunate amongst us have to release our belts, remove our shoes, empty every pocket so the nearest thug can see who is a good mugging prospect and on we go. Never fly if you have dropped a couple of pant sizes, lest you find yourself raising your arms for the body scanner while your kecks travel south – oh! and travelling commando is a definite no,no!
I remember one night on Lower Thames St in London with no street lighting and the ‘ring of steel’. My driver’s door electric window was having an off day. As I went through the cordon, the machine gun wielding solder signaled me to lower my window. What’s sign language for ‘my electric window is not working?’. Do I refuse to comply because I can’t? I opted for opening my door – not smart? I am making an unrequested move in front of a machine gun totting soldier and his equally well armed pals are standing by to re-inact a scene from Bonny and Clyde. I stopped travelling into the City at night until I got my window fixed.
So, what is the point to all of this? Well you may ask. We have seen several people murdered by terrorists in the UK – but how many? What about 1,000. No, nothing like that. But there has been a few and it is horrendous what it happens. Of course, if it was 1,000 we would be in very deep doodoo. But just a couple of years ago the murder rate in the UK was about 1,000 in one year. That figure has dropped to around 650 per year. So what is the greatest threat to our lives?
But here’s the thing. For every citizen killed by a terrorist there are 20 or 30 killed by a non-terrorist – probably someone known to you or even a family member.
So we must ask ourselves, ‘what is the greatest threat to our lives?’ Well, terrorism certainly is not it. Is there a relationship between our foreign policy and terrorism – I’ll leave that for you to decide.
But before we leave the subject, let’s look at another example. George Bush spoke of the axis of evil. He dragged the US and the UK into Afghanistan and Iraq and on to Libya and of course that has no spread to Syria. This was the quest to drive out terrorism. Of course 9/11 was a real tragedy and nobody can deny that. But look at the murder rate in the USA. It is the equivalent to 9/11 three times a year. And still the USA bow to the powerful NRA who fly under the banner of their ‘right to bear arms’. My solution to these people is to reverse the trend and offer the ‘right to arm bears’. Ask yourself this – how many people in the USA have been killed by terrorists? Between 1960 and 1996 50 people were murdered every day in the USA. This has now come down to a mere 40 per day or almost 15,000 per year. You may ask yourself that same question – Is there a relationship between their foreign policy and terrorism? – I’ll let you decide.
And finally ….. If you are a guy out having a drink and you get a bit ‘3 sheets’ you may think the risk of walking home is too great. Statistically, the greatest threat is not walking home – it’s going home.