Czech Sensiblility
Prague, Sept 25 (CTK) - Jiri Lang, director of the civilian counter-intelligence BIS, believes most Czechs are not yet fully aware of the danger of terrorism.
Translation: Czech's do not panic and change their way of life because of the threat of terrorism. I've said this so many times I am blue in the face, but I'm going to say it again. Here it goes....
Terrorist want you to be afraid. The root of the word terrorism is terror (being afraid). They do not intend to kill us all, but rather they seek to kill a few to make the rest of us terrified. If we refuse to be afraid then we have won the battle. If we cower and run then the terrorists have won.
The Czechs have never struck me as a people overly concerned with safety. That is clearly changing, but the basic you-never-know-when-you-are-going-to-die-so-you-should-enjoy-life-while-you-can attitude is still well in tact.
I can not stand fear mongering and I refuse to be afraid. I would be happy to do what I can to fight terrorism, but I feel there is little I can do. Yet the powers that be are trying to lay the resposibility for fighting terrorism on you and me. Let's take this quote to illustrate what I mean.
He said that a well-informed public and its cooperation with the police can be one of the most effective weapons against terrorism.
O.K. that sounds all fine and good, but what does that mean? How exactly do I cooperate with the police? I am well informed, but the police have yet to ask for my help. I guess I will just have to wait.
Have you ever heard the expression "lightning never strikes twice in one place?" Now, I don't know if that is true, but it is a pretty good rule live by. Ground Zero of the WTC is probably a very safe place right now. Bali? No more bombs since the first one. How about that bus in London? Any more problems there? Of course not. And yet these lousy fear mongers make the Czechs out to be stupid for living by this priciple.
"When there is a bomb attack at a seaside resort, other foreigners do not visit the location for some time. On the contrary, Czechs go to this particular site because the prices of the stays fall," Lang said, citing this as an example of the Czech attitude to terrorism.
If the rest of the world had this type of attitude, the terrorists wouldn't stand a chance.
Translation: Czech's do not panic and change their way of life because of the threat of terrorism. I've said this so many times I am blue in the face, but I'm going to say it again. Here it goes....
Terrorist want you to be afraid. The root of the word terrorism is terror (being afraid). They do not intend to kill us all, but rather they seek to kill a few to make the rest of us terrified. If we refuse to be afraid then we have won the battle. If we cower and run then the terrorists have won.
The Czechs have never struck me as a people overly concerned with safety. That is clearly changing, but the basic you-never-know-when-you-are-going-to-die-so-you-should-enjoy-life-while-you-can attitude is still well in tact.
I can not stand fear mongering and I refuse to be afraid. I would be happy to do what I can to fight terrorism, but I feel there is little I can do. Yet the powers that be are trying to lay the resposibility for fighting terrorism on you and me. Let's take this quote to illustrate what I mean.
He said that a well-informed public and its cooperation with the police can be one of the most effective weapons against terrorism.
O.K. that sounds all fine and good, but what does that mean? How exactly do I cooperate with the police? I am well informed, but the police have yet to ask for my help. I guess I will just have to wait.
Have you ever heard the expression "lightning never strikes twice in one place?" Now, I don't know if that is true, but it is a pretty good rule live by. Ground Zero of the WTC is probably a very safe place right now. Bali? No more bombs since the first one. How about that bus in London? Any more problems there? Of course not. And yet these lousy fear mongers make the Czechs out to be stupid for living by this priciple.
"When there is a bomb attack at a seaside resort, other foreigners do not visit the location for some time. On the contrary, Czechs go to this particular site because the prices of the stays fall," Lang said, citing this as an example of the Czech attitude to terrorism.
If the rest of the world had this type of attitude, the terrorists wouldn't stand a chance.
posted by Praguetwin at
11:55 AM
7 Comments:
Outstanding comment. I agree entirely. The Bush administration is buying into the terror agenda to keep us all afraid and to keep itself in power. Bush and Osama are doing each other's work hand-in-hand. They need each other. It's pathetic that so many Americans don't see the obvious connection.
Thanks for visiting my site. I'll see yours again.
By
NEWSGUY, at 6:31 PM
And those damn Czechs just won't line up and be afraid like good little ducks.
Good point about them needing each other. That reminds me of the 2004 election when bin Laden gave Bush his "endorsement" Br'er Rabbit style.
By
Praguetwin, at 8:12 PM
Lightning doesn’t strike twice? I guess you forgot that 9/11 was the second attack on the WTC didn’t you?
Few people are stupid enough to doubt the notion that if it were feasible at the time, the terrorists would have rather detonated some type of radiological device than fly planes into the WTC. Should it come to pass that the terrorist do indeed unleash the atom. Please don’t stand outdoors and proudly proclaim that YOU are not afraid.
By
Anonymous, at 10:04 PM
Hey, you tell those complacent Czechs to hurry up and get paranoid. If they aren't suspicious of their neighbors and slandering everyone who disagrees with them, they're not serious about the War on Tur. They're either with us or against us.
By
Tom Harper, at 2:10 AM
I agree with the sensibility argument, but quite frankly the World Trade Center was struck twice, once in '93 and once in '01.
But I do take the point. I don't know what sense you get not being in the US, but there are people in tiny little towns who are quivering looking for Al Qaeda under bushes. It's crazy.
Mike
By
mikevotes, at 4:19 AM
Good point Arch,
But there was 8 years in between. The point is that people will avoid a tourist spot for a couple of years and then go back. This is the same thing with temporary security measures. So now the U.S. is going to relax the standards on liquids on planes. Why? Is it safer now? Better question, if they can be relaxed now, doesn't that mean they were unnecessary from the beginning.
You are a smart man, Arch. Despite the threat of terrorism being real, perhaps one day you will see that all the hysteria only helps the terrorists and hurts us. It helps OBL acheive his stated goal of "turning America into a shadow of it's former self."
Hey, if there is a radioactive cloud outside my window I'll stay indoors, but until then, I'm not changing my lifestyle one single bit. I went to Tunisia on my honeymoon after the WTC attacks and surprise!, we survived.
Tom,
LOL. Exactly. How can the terrorist win if we aren't terrorised? I mean how can we win if... wait, I'm confused. :)
By
Praguetwin, at 8:50 AM
Mike,
You and Arch both made that very good point about the WTC, but I guess my point is that life goes on. If the logic of the Czech counter-intelligence cheif is taken seriously the WTC should have been abandoned after '93. Essentially he is saying that we should just abandon every site where there is an attack.
The small town paranoia in the U.S. is sad to me more than anything else. The bubble of total security has been popped and Americans are not dealing with it too well.
In Europe, there has been terrorism for a very long time and it is considered one of a very wide ranging risks that life presents. When I first went to Paris in '97 there were no trash cans in the subways (actually they were still there but had steel plates fixed on them so nothing could be put inside. The trash was then piled on top of the bins). I was just there and the trash cans are functioning again.
Things didn't change that much here in Europe after 9/11. The threat of terrorism was and still is. Europeans already knew this.
The world is a dangerous place. Always has been, and always will be.
By
Praguetwin, at 8:58 AM
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