Just how worried should we be by the threat of terrorism?
I am currently reading “21 Lessons For The 21st Century” by the Israeli writer Yuval Noah Harari. I am stunned by the breadth of his knowledge of different subjects, different nations and different periods of history.
In a chapter of terrorism, he asks us to keep threats to life in perspective:
“Since 11 September 2001, every year terrorists have killed about fifty people in the European Union, about ten people in the USA, about seven people in China and up to 25,000 people globally (mostly in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria and Syria).
In contrast, each year traffic accidents kill about 80,000 Europeans, 40,000 Americans, 270,000 Chinese and 1.25 million people altogether. Diabetes and high sugar levels kill up to 3.5 million people annually, while air pollution kills about 7 million people.”
He is surely right when he points out:
” … governments react to the theatre of terror with a show of security, orchestrating immense displays of force, such as the persecution of entire populations or the invasion of foreign countries. In most cases, this overreaction to terrorism imposes a far greater threat to our security than the terrorists themselves.”