President Obama was on TV here in Las Vegas scolding some less evolved Americans regarding their lack of enthusiasm for new neighbors fresh from the battlefields of Syria. A guy wearing an NBAA badge said “It takes a lot of personal courage to dismiss the security concerns of others when you have Secret Service protection for life and will never board another commercial flight.”
18 thoughts on “NBAA perspective on Obama’s welcome to Syrians, et al.”
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“fresh from the battlefields of Syria”
That makes about as much sense as saying that Jewish refugees were fresh from the battlefields of Europe.
I wonder what the security concerns of the badge wearer actually were? If he’s concerned about terrorism, he has almost certainly nothing to be worried about.
Accidents happen. And according to the CDC, they happen in these ways:
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/accidental-injury.htm
Almost 40,000 people a year die in the US from accidental poisoning. That’s about 13x the number killed in 9/11, but EVERY SINGLE YEAR. Some sources estimate that’s about the number of people who were killed instantaneously in Hiroshima.
30,000 Americans die each year from falling down. Yep, falling. Again, that’s like 10 September 11ths…every year.
And as we all know, there is that most dangerous of activities: driving. Our overemphasis on car transportation coupled with our nonexistent standards for driver licensing kill 35,000 Americans a year. Of course, we are ignoring the millions of injuries, some profound, but…still, it’s 10 September 11ths.
OK, so, accidental deaths claim the equivalent of 33 9/11s every year. Since 9/11 is now 14 years ago, that’s 462 9/11s that have happened since the infamous one.
That’s a total of around 1.8 million deaths since 2001.
I’d be shaking in my boots about that. Terrorism? Absolutely not a concern.
Sounds like your badge-guy was, well, terrorized!
Why do we make it so easy for these fringe, fanatic groups to manipulate us? They have the whole Western world reacting to them, when in absolute terms their impact is nothing. If we can’t be free and brave in the face of even these tiny flea-bites, I shudder to think how we might handle a challenge that is actually serious. Do we want a free society, one that values human and civil rights? Then we better be prepared to make even the minimal sacrifices that are asked of us. Of course, in this latest incident, few Americans seem to be concerned with such lofty ideals. They just feel fear, which is exactly what these malcontent French teenagers wanted.
(oh, another thing to be worried about: anemia/iron deficiency. Claims 4,894 American lives a year.)
@The Chronic,
How many Jews came to the USA and committed acts of terror?
@Longleaf,
I’d guess there are a whole bunch of folks who were watching the 2013 Boston Marathon who’d disagree with you. Also, I’d hazard a guess that virtually none of the deaths you mentioned above (car wrecks, falling down, poisoning) were anything more than accidents.
To this mere high school grad, “accident” and “terrorist act with the intention to maim or kill” are total opposites.
MarkD –
What does a person’s level of education have to do with the validity of their arguments?
Perhaps I was inexact in making my point. In short, it is irrational to live your life in fear of terrorism. It is a vanishingly small phenomenon.
And the roughly 16,000 yearly murder victims (11,000 by gun) in the USA (see the above-cited CDC data) might disagree with your stated priorities. Violent death is a real problem that could benefit from some of the investment, debate, and prioritizing that we waste worrying about terrorism.
“fresh from the battlefields of Syria”
No, that makes about as much sense as letting in Ukranian concentration camp guards (which we did also).
It appears that as if at least one of the recent terrorists in France came in as a refugee “fresh from the battlefields of Syria” – the exact scenario you are talking about.
Accidents are just that – accidents. Allowing young battle aged men into your country is a deliberate act. When a plane crashes, the NTSB investigates. We need an NTSB for immigration to see where our policies have gone wrong every time an immigrant/refugee turns terrorist.
I think you guys missed the main point of the original posting, which concerned the possibility that a person’s personal circumstances might affect how they felt on this issue.
Since they are greatly outnumbered by accidental deaths, we can also ignore plain murders. Don’t let yourself be manipulated, people!
And by the way I did think the post neatly pointed out a possible small very tiny issue related to perspective.
“Let them eat cake,” Obama said to himself and turned to his smart phone.
None of you guys have made any quantitative argument that terrorism is actually something that justifies fear, vast expenditure, war, and mass surveillance. I probably should not have used the example of accidental deaths, but instead might have made the point better with just with the murder statistics for the US which I cited in my follow-up post. 16,000 murder deaths a year in the US (224,000 since 9/11/2001) but no cabinet-level agency? No 3 trillion dollar war? How many terrorist deaths have we experienced in the US in that time? Any numbers?
As for me, I think Obama might have been making a similar point and not been making an imperial pronouncement. The risk from terror is just vanishingly small. Of course, given that he has more or less extended and expanded King Bush II’s terrorism and surveillance policies, perhaps you guys are right.
There was something called the Jewish Mafia that existed in the early 20th century. Logic similar to what we hear today about Syrians could have been used as a reason to exclude Jewish refugees in the 1930s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish-American_organized_crime
Regarding the point about the Secret Service, you have to keep in mind the fact that Kennedy was assassinated, Reagan was shot and armed people with murderous intent got close to Ford twice. Given all of that, the president is in greater danger from potential terrorists than other Americans, with the possible exception of Secret Service agents themselves.
If you guys are so fond of Jews that you would like a large number of Jewish refugees to move into your neighborhoods, why not lobby for unlimited immigration for Israelis and Russian Jews? Israeli Jews are exposed to a state of war, periodic rocket attacks, nuclear threats from Iran, etc. Russian Jews are exposed to challenging economic conditions. We could probably get 1 million Jewish refugees to show up if we offered them Green cards, free housing, etc.
Longleaf,
I can’t see where MarkD listed his priorities, but I will share mine: we are destined for events that will make 9-11 look like a traffic accident. It’s surely when, not if. The top insurance executives in the world all say this with certainty. Warren Buffett says the same thing. And I’d call him fairly well informed as to insurance problems.
When these events occur and we lose tens or hundreds of thousands of innocent Americans to terror, please remember how little danger we are actually in.
Exactomatic –
One interpretation of your post might be that it shows a lot of fear – again, the precise reaction the terrorists want. Their intent is to terrorize. They have very limited resources, so they choose spectacular but cheap-to-implement means.
As to your points:
– If it is “surely when, not if”, then what can we possibly do to prevent these events? If they are inevitable, shouldn’t we just keep our civil liberties and privacy? What do you propose to prevent these events? Shall we carpet-bomb Islamic territories, wiping them out like Dresden, as an ex-Mossad chief proposed this morning?
– Can you cite sources for your assertions about top insurance executives? Also, why should I just take what someone says, even an insurance executive or Warren Buffett, on faith? Shouldn’t they need to present evidence to back up their claims?
– In my understanding, actuarial analysis by insurance companies necessarily depends on historical events. Prediction of out-of-family events like the attacks you suggest is pretty dodgy in any field. How can anyone be sure of these predictions?
– I actually agree with you somewhat; I see the only true threat to American civilians being a nuclear (or semi-nuclear) weapon smuggled into the US. But this scenario stretches the concept of terrorism to the breaking point. Nuclear weapons must be manufactured by, and are controlled by, nations. The barrier to nuke manufacture is industrial, not technical. Once obtained (at great cost), nations are understandably loathe to lose these weapons, due to the expense, loss of use, and potential liability for misuse by thieves. An attack supported by this kind of resource is not terrorism, it’s just war. Prevention involves use of the traditional tools like diplomacy and MAD.
I maintain that Obama had a valid point. Keeping refugees out of the country due to terrorism fears is irrational. Furthermore, no-one has still presented any argument that fears of terrorism are rational.
I kind of expect more from the generally brilliant and feisty readers of this blog! 🙂
Longleaf,
Your refusal to acknowledge the terrorist acts of 9-11 as evidence or rationale for fearing future terrorist acts is not the be all end all of this subject. It’s merely your personal opinion.
Perhaps asking the families or friends of the 9-11 victims if they agree with your opinions on there being nothing to fear regarding future terrorist attacks in the U.S. and let us see/hear their reactions.
One of our more decorated soldiers, the late Col. David Hackworth, virtually guaranteed several types of terrorist attacks against the USA and so far he’s been correct on several predictions.
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I think we got that point. Clearly, none of you have been refugees.
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You have apparently never heard of the Jewish Defense League. Or The Irgun and the 1946 Hotel David bombing in Jerusalem.
Is it unfair to blame all Jewish refugees/immigrants for the acts of a few terrorists? Yes, it is…
“FBI statistics show that, from 1980 through 1985, there were 18 officially classified terrorist attacks in the U.S. committed by Jews; 15 of those by members of the JDL.”
Longleaf:
128 dead from terrorists in Paris but that’s not a problem because
in 1913, 3250 people died from traffic accidents in France (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate).
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/17/what-isis-really-wants-th_n_6698322.html explains why it is a problem and hints at part of the solution.
Longleaf,
I don’t think you will get a response that proves fear of terrorism in the US is rational. I don’t think it’s a possible argument for most citizens.
From what I can tell, the US Government spends ~$10B on cancer research per year (NIH). It spends on the order of $1B on Dementia research. I don’t think there is published spending on “Accident Prevention”. The 2015 Defense budget is $637B. Is this a rational allocation of funds?
The probability of me developing cancer or dementia is much greater than the probability of me being blown up by a terrorist.
Unfortunately, people’s fears are driven by the media, not real life. There is not a daily news story summing up all the people that have died from cancer on that day.