PUT TERRORISM IN PERSPECTIVE
In the corporate mass media news, we hear the word "terrorism" many times almost every day, but what about the real problems in the world today?
Next time you leave your house, beware, because crossing the road is many hundreds of thousands of times more of a threat to your life than terrorism.
THE TRUTH ABOUT TERRORISM
0: People killed in the USA by terrorism/WMD in 2006.
(Thousands killed by the US and its allies in foreign countries.)
0: People killed in the UK by terrorism/WMD in 2006.
0: People killed in the USA by terrorism/WMD in 2005.
52: killed in the UK by terrorism/WMD in 2005 (all on "7/7").
0: People in the USA killed by terrorism/WMD in 2004.
0: People in the UK killed by terrorism/WMD in 2004.
0: People in the USA killed by terrorism/WMD in 2003.
0: People in the UK killed by terrorism/WMD in 2003.
0: People in the USA killed by terrorism/WMD in 2002.
0: People in the UK killed by terrorism/WMD in 2002.
2,752: in USA killed by terrorism in 2001 (all on "9/11").
0: People in the UK killed by terrorism/WMD in 2001.
0: People in the USA killed by terrorism/WMD in 2000.
0: People in the UK killed by terrorism/WMD in 2000.
WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD
1.2 MILLION: People in killed in road accidents EVERY YEAR.
430,000: Americans killed by cigarettes EVERY YEAR. (The equivalent of 9/11 repeated every two days forever.) Bush's response to a real threat? His election promise to stop the Justice Department's law suit against the tobacco industry.
400,000: Americans die each year from obesity (while much greater numbers around the world starve to death).
11,000: the people killed in America every year by guns, a human tragedy equivalent to a new 9/11 every 3 months.
8,437: Civilians killed by US/UK attacks in Iraq in 2003.
3,800: Civilians killed by US/UK attacks in Afghanistan by 2002.
135,000: Deaths from cancer in UK alone EVERY YEAR
3 MILLION: Killed by HIV/AIDS in 2003.
780,000,000: People starving to death RIGHT NOW.
1.2 BILLION: People "living" on less than $1 a day.
513,000,000: Number of people without access to safe drinking water.
2,500: Palestinian civillians killed "by accident" in Palestine by the Israeli army - and that's just since September 2000.
14,000: Palestinian people whose homes have been demolished by Israeli bulldozers - and that's just since October 2000. Families who do not escape in time are crushed to death - often at night in their beds.
OTHER FACTS
* Global warming has already killed more people than terrorism, "based on the number of fatalities that have already occurred".
The Independent (UK), "Scientist 'gagged' by No 10 after warning of global warming threat", front-page, 8 March 2004.
[ http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/environment/story.jsp?story=499013 ]
THE REAL TERRORISTS
Nobody has benefitted more from terrorism than the US, the UK, and Israel. They use terrorism as an excuse to change the law, giving more power to the authorities and withdrawing freedoms from the people. They use terrorism as an excuse to attack and conquer foreign lands. They exploit our fear to win support.
If terrorism and WMD are such a threat, what are the causes? Nobody provides more money to terrorist groups and rogue states than the US and the UK. Nobody has or sells more weapons than the US and UK.
Can you see what is happening here? Or are you still afraid of the boogey-man?
FURTHER READING
BBC News, "'Mortal danger' terrorism warning", 5 March 2004.
[ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3535729.stm ]
Fox News, "Bush, Blair Remain Defiant on Terrorism", 20 November 2003.
[ http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,103607,00.html ]
"This terrorism is the 21st century threat. It is a war that strikes at the heart of all we hold dear," Blair said.
BBC News, "Key points: Bush and Blair", 20 November 2003.
[ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3222768.stm ]
"Terrorism is the greatest 21st Century threat", said Mr Blair
BBC News, "Text of Blair's speech", 27 July 2003.
[ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3076253.stm ]
"But first we must explain the danger...
...the threat is new, it isn't obvious...
Compromise is a fine thing except when based on an illusion...
And I don't believe you can compromise with this new form of terrorism."
BBC News, "Bush speech: Full text", 8 September 2003.
[ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3088936.stm ]
"We are rolling back the terrorist threat to civilisation..."
BBC News, "Relatives condemn Bush 9/11 ads", 5 March 2004.
[ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3534533.stm ]
Relatives of victims killed in the 11 September 2001 attacks have criticised George W Bush for using images from the tragedy in his campaign advertisements.
...
Among the images shown in two of the advertisements are images of firefighters carrying a body, draped in a US flag, from the rubble at Ground Zero, where the World Trade Center once stood.
The International Association of Fire Fighters condemned the decision to use their images and said the US president was being hypocritical.
"We're not going to stand for him to put his arm around one of our members on top of a pile of rubble at Ground Zero during a tragedy and then stand by and watch him cut money for first responders [emergency services]," he said.
...
Daily Telegraph (UK), "Blair's blueprint to strike at terror", 6 March 2004.
[ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/03/06/nblur06.xml ]
Tony Blair called yesterday for a change in international law to legitimise pre-emptive military action against rogue states that developed weapons of mass destruction, co-operated with terrorists or brutalised their people.
He said the "global threat" posed by Islamic extremism and global terrorism meant it was time to rethink the centuries-old rule that the only clear case for armed intervention was "self-defence in response to aggression".
...
BBC News, "Blunkett plans tougher terror law", 2 February 2004.
[ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3450201.stm ]
Home Secretary David Blunkett wants new anti-terrorism laws to make it easier to convict British terror suspects.
...
BBC News, "MI5 expands to meet terror threat", 22 February 2004.
[ http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3510611.stm ]
The home security service MI5 is to expand by 50% in response to the terror threat to the UK.
...
BBC News, "Thorny problem of legal reform", 7 November 2003.
[ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3248311.stm ]
The government made it sound so simple. Abolish the post of Lord Chancellor; set up a Supreme Court to replace the Law Lords; establish a Judicial Appointments Commission; and consider whether the barristers' rank of QCs was still needed.
...
Lord Woolf said he was concerned that without the Lord Chancellor in place to safeguard the independence of the judiciary there was a risk the institutions may not be robust enough to prevent political interference.
...
LINKS
http://www.dft.gov.uk/pns/DisplayPN.cgi?pn_id=2003_0121
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3496918.stm
http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/fact/cigmortl.htm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1740538.stm
http://www.who.int/world-health-day/2004/en/
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/1015657.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_1138000/1138009.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_1306000/1306777.stm
http://www.unaids.org/wad/2003/Epiupdate2003_en/Epi03_11_en.htm#P251_74232
http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/Learn/world%20hunger%20facts%202002.htm
http://www.earthsummitwatch.org/cwrtow.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_1552000/1552900.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3428517.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3373205.stm
www.theinsider.org/news/article.asp
Nov. 24, 2010