Fake terrorist threats dulls us?

[rakuenso]

Is this true? That for example here in the states Bush has been raisingly terror alarms repeatedly without any real signs and now alot of people could care less. What could be done about it as well?

[atinymonkey]

Well, the boy has cried wolf. He's also called superwolf, ninjawolf and atomic mutantwolf. I don't know about the rest of the international community, but in the UK we have been subject to terrorist attacks consistently for 25 odd years and the constant cries of 'Critical High Substantiated Security Risk, whooohaaaa' followed by embarrassed silence are getting to be a source of comedy.

 

Why is this neuroscience anyway?

[YT2095]

there would be (and IS) a level of desensitisation involved, the .Gov is aware of this also. what they plan on DOING about it, is as yet unknown?

 

and I agree with ATM, it doesn`t belong in Neuroscince, so I`ll try find a better "Home" for it

 

depending on how the chat evolves, it may stay here or end up in the "Politics" section... we`ll see

[Pangloss]

I think one must be careful about labelling terrorist threats as invalid *only* because they come from the Bush administration. It's quite possible that all of the evils of the world that have been attributed to Bush are true *and* that the terrorist threats are real.

 

Partisanship can be a dangerous thing.

[Lance]

Better too may than too little. Besides what makes you all think that there were no terrorists? Do you really think they would/should come out and give us tons of information if they catch a terrorist? That seems like it would be a security threat in it self.

[Pangloss]

One way to look at this, by the way, is to ask what would happen if there were another terrorist attack, the government KNEW it was a possibility, and no warning was given.

 

Another question that should be asked is: How can it be done better?

[Skye]

They always know it's a possibility though, that's the problem. In any case, I don't see how people can react to terror warnings in any useful way. It's not like a hail warning, where you can just move your car under cover.

[Douglas]

One way to look at this, by the way, is to ask what would happen if there were another terrorist attack, the government KNEW it was a possibility, and no warning was given.

That's exactly what I was going to say.

They'd have Bush impeached.

[Phi for All]

Personally, I think the whole Threat Level system aids the terrorists more than it aids us. It keeps people fearful, and I don't like how easily led we become when we're afraid.

 

I don't think any of the alerts are fake. But if the Intelligence community has some specific information about an attack, they should try to keep it as local as possible, let the people know in the affected area only, instead of telling the whole country to be on the alert, signalling the terrorists to try again some other time.

 

I agree that kind of alarm makes us numb after awhile. Car alarms are a good example. Too many, too often.