<The media has a heavy hand in all this. Headlines sell papers and attract advertisers. Exploding bombs make spectacular headlines and allow tv anchors to sound important.

Terrorism is a media event.



You make a very good point. The media may even drive most of the effects in many cases. It's possible that terrorism would cease to work as effectively if the victims were somehow able to place it in a different perspective. Psychology is everything in this game, far more than the number of deaths caused. After Sept. 11, we radically restructured our nation and skirted the edge of panic for a number of deaths equivalent to a few weeks of routine highway fatalities. It was all in the psychology, which is why the word "terrorism" is used.

I like to go back to the example of Britain during the Blitz, which killed 20,000 Londoners and others in 8 months, and during the V-weapon attacks. To a large extent, particularly in the case of the V-weapons, the attacks were often seemingly random, and without much warning, much like that of a suicide bombing.

Yet, the population rallied, and took massive damage almost in stride. Of course, they had the psychological advantage of a locatable enemy that could be defeated on ordinary terms.

I'm having second thoughts about how effective such tactics could be in the U.S., if we can keep a grip on ourselves about domestic defensive measures (from what I've seen after Sept. 11, I'm not holding my breath)

Looking at the very big picture, and with pure logic, it is apparent that a bunch of people with bombs strapped to their bodies could not really make a significant dent in the actual population and economy of the United States, save for the social and psychological effects generated by the response. Kind of like an infection which is not dangerous compared to the immune response of the body.

Even weapons of mass destruction can be survived with a large enough nation to feed support into the damaged area. In an area the size of the U.S., even a nuclear strike is a local phenomenon. Maybe one of Israel's problems is its tiny size. Everything happens next door.

Of course, if you or your family are on the receiving end of any of this, it's pretty damned hard to be objective about the big picture.