Terrorism: A False Sense of Insecurity?

In light of reported terrorist attempts last week to blow up planes flying to the United States from London's Heathrow airport, I've been reading a ton of stories and analysis about the incident and doing my best to understand what the hell happened and why.

Then I came across an article -- penned in 2004 actually -- that brought up a few things I don't remember seeing in my frantic hunt for information in the past several days.

According to the piece, lightning strikes, accidents caused by deer and allergic reactions to peanuts have killed more Americans than terrorism has. And, the number of U.S. citizens that drown in bathtubs each year is more than those who die annually worldwide because of terrorism.

You don't hear stats like these too often, and I'm not sure how relevant they even are, but author and scholar John Mueller loves to bring them up.

Mueller, who cited these and other alleged findings in his 2004 article, "A False Sense of Insecurity?" was unshaken by last week's reports of the alleged plot to simultaneously blow up 10 jets headed to the United States from London using liquid explosives inside carry-on luggage.

Mueller is the Woody Hayes Chair of National Security Studies at the Mershon Center at Ohio State University, and his book "Overblown: How Politicians, the Terrorism Industry and Others Stoke National Security Fears" hits bookshelves this November. Mueller says that, despite incidents like the one last week and its wave of ripple effects, and the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the main thing Americans have to fear in 2006 is fear itself -- a fear perpetuated by the Bush administration and disseminated by the mainstream news media.

He recognizes the severity of what could have happened if the plot had been successful, and recognizes the phenomenal tragedy of the terrorist attacks of 9/11. But the resulting power of terror, he says, truly lies in the hands of the Bush administration and the mainstream media.

President Bush on Aug. 10 released the following statement regarding the alleged terrorist attempts to blow up airplanes heading to the states from London: "The recent arrests that our fellow citizens are now learning about are a stark reminder that this nation is at war with Islamic Fascists who will use any means to destroy those of us who love freedom, to hurt our nation."

Mueller isn't buying it.

Mueller's easy to go along with in conversation. He poses well-thought arguments in a calm, matter-of-fact way. He's not a fist-pumping dissident, but more of a stoic, soft-spoken and well-informed critic who's been a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., Stanford University and the Nobel Institute in Oslo, Norway. He also wrote a book on dance and scripts for musicals.

In his 2005 "The Iraq Syndrome" article, Mueller argued that American public opinion was a huge factor in the wars in Korea, Vietnam and Iraq, and that in each one there was a simple association: as casualties mount, support decreases. Broad enthusiasm at the outset invariably erodes, and as a result, the military has fought to keep Americans from seeing pictures of body bags or flag-draped coffins, he wrote.

WireTap caught up with Mueller the day after failed airplane bombings in London . I figured now was a good time to revisit the lightning, deer, peanuts and bathtubs theory.

WireTap: I'm curious how you felt after seeing news reports about the alleged terrorist bombing attempts last week. What was your initial reaction?

John Mueller: "[On Aug. 10, 2006] we raised harassments at U.S. airports. What you got was a CYA (cover your ass) problem," Mueller said. "If we don't do anything, it's a problem. If we do something and something terrible still goes down, we've at least covered our asses. In a sense, we're repealing democracy because terrorists do something, and we do much worse. It's self-punishing."