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LifestreamWired: America’s Flimsy Fortress
Every day, some 82,000 foreign visitors set foot in the US with a visa, and since early this year, most of them have been fingerprinted and photographed in the name of security. But despite the money spent, the inconveniences suffered, and the international ill will caused, these new measures, like most instituted in the wake of September 11, are mostly ineffectual.
<snip> Even counting the toll they took, 2,978 people in the US died from terrorism in 2001. That same year, 157,400 Americans died of lung cancer, 42,116 in road accidents, and 3,454 from malnutrition.
The only effective way to deal with terrorists is through old-fashioned police and intelligence work … <snip>
Security always involves compromises. <snip>
Quite true. Especially the last part. People on all levels of society need to understand the trade-offs involved. But people are prone to exaggeration of effort, in everything that they do.
