Planes crash into towers and thousands die. Bombs explode in London and dozens die. My heart goes out to those who are suffering now in England. Will we always be living in daily fear, terrified for ourselves and our loved ones?
I’m doubtful about whether declaring war on terrorists does any good. Very doubtful, in fact: for every terrorist you kill, your actions inflame dozens more: their children, brothers, sisters, and friends. And the powers that be seem to be disinclined to find a more productive solution, if there is one.
So perhaps fear is part of our every day life now. But humans are adaptable- during World War II, Londoners dealt with thousands of bombs being dropped, and found ways to live fairly normal lives. I’m sure conditions were far from ideal, but they weren’t paralized by fear.
Part of the coping mechanism is probably a gradual dulling of the fear/panic response. Ho hum, another terrorist attack. How many died this time? Was it the Holy Jihad Warriors, or their arch enemies, the Jihad Holy Warriors? Yawn…
When people become numb, what incentive will there be for the terrorists? I mean, without the terror, they are just “ists”, and that isn’t a very useful. And maybe along the way, someone will come up with a better way of dealing with the terrorists than inflicting terror upon them.