BGuthrie Photos: Cato Institute -- "Overblown: How Politicians etc Inflate National Security Threats" (w/John Mueller and James Gilmore III)

Cato Institute -- "Overblown: How Politicians etc Inflate National Security Threats" (w/John Mueller and James Gilmore III):

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Description of Pictures: Overblown: How Politicians and the Terrorism Industry Inflate National Security Threats, and Why We Believe Them
Featuring:
* John Mueller, Woody Hayes Chair of National Security Studies, Ohio State University;
* James S. Gilmore, III, Former Governor of Virginia and Chair of the Advisory Panel to Assess Domestic Response Capabilities for Terrorism Involving Weapons of Mass Destruction and Chairman, National Council on Readiness and Preparedness.

Since September 11, 2001, there have been no terrorist attacks in the United States, even though a single person with a bomb-filled backpack could carry one out. Why hasn’t it happened? Among the possibilities is that the threat of domestic terrorism is not as great as generally assumed. In his provocative book Overblown, national security expert John Mueller argues that the capacity of al-Qaeda or of any similar group to do damage in the United States pales in comparison to the capacity other dedicated enemies have possessed in the past. Our responses to the terror threat may be more costly than any damage terrorists could do. Indeed, they may play into terrorists’ hands. Mueller argues that it is time to rethink our approach to terrorism, target resources proportionately to the threat, and avoid the fear-mongering that has been such a staple of post-9/11 public dialogue. Please join us for a lively discussion with this interesting author and a very distinguished commentator.

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[1] CATBLO_061213_012.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[2] CATBLO_061213_019.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[3] CATBLO_061213_030.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)
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[10] CATBLO_061213_066.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[11] CATBLO_061213_067.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[12] CATBLO_061213_069.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)
[13] CATBLO_061213_074.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[14] CATBLO_061213_075.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[15] CATBLO_061213_076.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)
[16] CATBLO_061213_077.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[17] CATBLO_061213_078.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[18] CATBLO_061213_079.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)
[19] CATBLO_061213_081.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)	[20] CATBLO_061213_082.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?) $Why no attacks since 9/11? (a) Great U.S. security? (b) Afghanistan disruption [in attention of terrorists]?\ (c) Everyone went to Iraq? (4) Inhospitable U.S. Muslim community? (5) Patience, takes a lot of time? [Or, his answer, simply that there aren't any al-Queda cells still operating here.]$	[21] CATBLO_061213_086.JPG Medium (Email) (Bigger?)
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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. CATBLO_061213_066.JPG: Seen in a reasonable context, terrorism generally has only limited direct effects.
2. CATBLO_061213_067.JPG: How worried are you that you or someone in your family will become a victim of terrorism? Percent worried or somewhat worried. How likely do you think it is that there will be another terrorist act in the United States within the next few months? Percent not at all likely -- that's the zero line.
3. CATBLO_061213_074.JPG: The costs of terrorism very often come mostly from the fear and consequent reaction (or overreaction) it characteristically inspires.
4. CATBLO_061213_075.JPG: Bin Laden Goal: Overreaction. "It is easy for us to provoke and bait... All that we have to do is to send two mujahidin... to raise a piece of cloth on which is written al-Qaeda in order to make the generals race there to cause America to suffer human, economic, and political losses. Our policy is one of bleeding America to the point of bankruptcy. The terrorist attacks cost al-Qaeda $500,000 while the attack and its aftermath inflicted a cost of more than $500 billion on the United States.
5. CATBLO_061213_076.JPG: Bin Laden Goal: Fear America is full of fear, from its north to its south, from its west to its east. Thank god for that.
6. CATBLO_061213_077.JPG: Policies designed to deal with terrorism should focus more on reducing fear and anxiety as inexpensively as possible than on objectively reducing the rather limited dangers terrorism is likely actually to pose.
7. CATBLO_061213_078.JPG: "Now putting your child on a school bus or driving across a bridge or just going to the mall -- each of these things is a small act of courage. And peril is part of everyday life." -- Charles Gibson, ABC News, September 11, 2006
8. CATBLO_061213_079.JPG: [Quoting John Athanason, Weeki Wachee marketing and promotion manager, after the site was considered a terrorism target.] "I can't imagine bin Laden trying to blow up the mermaids." "But with terrorists, who knows what they're thinking." "I don't want to think like terrorist, but what if the terrorists try to poison the water at Weeki Wachee Springs?" Athanason said Weeki Wachee Springs is working to get some of the federal counterterrorism funding that has been allocated to the Tampa Bay region by the Department of Homeland Security. [As reported in the St. Petersburg Times, April 22, 2005]
9. CATBLO_061213_081.JPG: "Get on the damn elevator! Fly on the damn pane! Calculate the odds of being harmed by a terrorist! It's still about as likely as being swept out to sea by a tidal wave... Suck it up, for crying out loud. You're almost certainly going to be okay. And in the unlikely event you're not, do you really want to spend your last days cowering behind plastic sheets and duct tape? That's not worth living, is it?" -- John McCain, Why Courage Matters (2004)
10. CATBLO_061213_082.JPG: Why no attacks since 9/11? (a) Great U.S. security? (b) Afghanistan disruption [in attention of terrorists]?\ (c) Everyone went to Iraq? (4) Inhospitable U.S. Muslim community? (5) Patience, takes a lot of time? [Or, his answer, simply that there aren't any al-Queda cells still operating here.]
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