We’re from the Government; We’re Here to Help
The BBC is running non-stop stories about the foiled terror plot to blow up 10 planes from the US to the UK leading to “loss of life on an unprecedented scale.” It is difficult to put this into perspective without sounding dismissive - more people were killed in September 11th than would have been on 10 transatlantic planes. If you consider more than one day’s worth of killings, more people die in automobile accidents in a month or due to violence in Iraq in the same time period. As many people die from lung cancer in a week. 8 million people were killed during World War II. In one day in 1915 over 5,000 Armenians were killed by the Turkish government. Unprecedented? How about unhelpful. Let Scotland Yard, the FBI and the CIA do their jobs and let the 1 million air passengers who fly each day do so and take the risks that we have been taking for decades. This isn’t the first time it was dangerous to fly and it won’t be the last. We are still statistically safer on an airplane than in our own living rooms.