Monsters of Our Own Imaginings

Responding to the attacks in Brussels by raising threat levels, issuing travel advisories, and airing melodramatic news coverage makes the Islamic State far more dangerous than it really is.

The pattern has become all too familiar. A terrorist attack occurs far from active war zones, someplace extreme violence is rare and unexpected. It might be Paris, California, London, Oslo, Boston, Madrid, Jakarta, or Ankara. The world recoils in horror and sympathy, even though the number of victims is small compared to the casualties suffered in wars, highway accidents, natural disasters, pandemics, or even preventable diseases. Media outlets offer up an orgy of overheated coverage, and the same talking heads argue about what to do. Opportunistic politicians chime in on cue, insisting that this latest tragedy confirms whatever they have been saying all along, often by issuing various proclamations that are just flat out wrong.

It has been like this ever since 9/11, and at this point there’s hardly anything new for me (or anyone else) to say....

Continue reading: http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/03/24/monsters-of-our-own-imaginings-brussels-bombings-islamic-state/