[PEN-L:30136] paradoxes of prioritization...........

["Ian Murray" <seamus2001@xxxxxxxxx>]

Terrorism is truly a great evil and we've made it worse
Our response has done nothing but increase the threat to liberty

Hugo Young
Tuesday September 10, 2002
The Guardian


[snip]

The left looks, too, at the missed opportunities to do what really matters.
Mesmerised by 9/11, they say, world leaders have hastened quicker than ever to
neglect the environment, hunger and poverty. Those should be top of the list of
any fair assessment of what deserves their attention. Terrorism, which can never
be entirely wiped out, is a distraction. It should take its place in a balance
sheet which records that, at a fundamental level, 9/11 really changed nothing in
a world rife with injustice, violence and danger - especially the world as seen
from Gaza, Cairo or Islamabad, and not just New York City.

I wish I could agree with this call for mature insouciance, one year on. But I
do not think it is rationally available. It seems to me that what happened has
in no way been exaggerated, and that it did indeed profoundly change the world.
What has happened since was not due to a misperception of the threat but to the
sheer limitations of the mainly American technique and mindset in responding to
it.

full at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,789140,00.html