Quote:
Originally Posted by RandyRandy
+1
It's all reactionary and window-dressing.
|
Yup, that is the aim of terrorism - to elicit a disproportionate response to the actual damage caused.
And I'm with you on the collective freak-outs about any scattered incidents that might be related to "terrorism", compared to the routine thousands of deaths each year due to drunk drivers, cancer, etc. If 1/4 the amount spent on the "War On Terror" the past decade had been diverted to cancer research, we'd have saved a lot more lives.
That being said, part of the reason we haven't had a major attack since 9/11 is indeed the fact that the West (spearheaded by the USA) did systematically destroy al-Qaeda's ample funding sources around the world. That more than any military action rendered them impotent as an organization even before Osama's death, it's pretty fascinating to read about how they did it in detail. And by "al-Qaeda" I mean the established entity & infrastructure that made 9/11 happen, not the 100 amateur-league extremist groups like the ones in Syria/Iraq/etc that tack on that name in hopes of getting clout & recognition. Those groups have little-to-no connection to the organization built by bin Laden & Al-zawahiri.