Re:Refuse to be terrorized (2006)
by coffeedrinker on Sunday July 17, 2011 @04:22PM
(#2774099)
>they [terrorists] are tricking us into burning money chasing them around the world
The terrorists are not the ones gaining financially and they are not the ones tricking us.
I didn't mean to say that terrorists are gaining financially or that the "burn[t] money" goes to them. I'd be surprised if that's a real goal.
My point was that regardless of where the money ends up, if it's misappropriated then it's a waste.
Re:Refuse to be terrorized (2006)
by coffeedrinker on Sunday July 17, 2011 @06:18PM
(#2774354)
I understood your point, and don't disagree.
Terrorism is overblown as an excuse to spend the money in ways to benefit certain industries.
As a US citizen, I don't doubt that some of our spending has directly stopped particular terrorist plots. However, my point for the past ~10 years has been: they [terrorists] are tricking us into burning money chasing them around the world. If we had invested a fraction of this to take care of people who have suffered from non-terrorist causes we would result with a net benefit.[1]
I want to reiterate that there undoubtedly threats to be addressed, but sometime I wish that politicians (and a fair amount of the general population) would leave the whack-a-mole terrorism game alone, take their (our) coin home and find something better to do.
[1] Admit, this is an assumption. But I don't think it's a huge leap.