Is terrorism really one of the main threats to our safety?

The terrorist bombings in London on July 7 2005 are, without question, profoundly distressing – and truly awful for those both directly and indirectly involved. Nonetheless, the good news is that the British have a long tradition of not over-reacting to such events. They sweep up the broken glass, pick up the twisted metal, carry away the shattered masonry, hose away the blood, tend to the injured, bury the dead, and try and retain a sense of proportion.

The British believe that the actions of a few extremists should not dictate the freedoms, quality and manner of how we conduct our lives; and they behave accordingly.

Such a truth should be self evident. You could call it horse sense.

I witnessed this at first hand over a number of years in the Seventies, when the IRA, the Libyans, the Iraqis, the Palestinians and a host of others were trying to settle various scores in London - and could not but be impressed by British cool. Incidents of extreme violence occurred every couple of days, many close to and around where I lived in Notting Hill Gate in London, but fundamentally nothing ever changed; and nor did our behavior. We went on enjoying the pleasures and resources of one of the world’s greatest cities as if nothing significant had happened. And a lot of mayhem happened.

Why? Well the truth is that terrorism is not, in the main, a serious threat to our lives. It certainly may be if terrorists get hold of weapons of mass destruction - such as nuclear, chemical or biological weapons – but even then we are faced with much greater threats to our daily wellbeing which we chose to ignore.

Traffic accidents, the effects of fast food, pollution of our air, land and water, cross infection in hospitals, the errors of the medical profession, the egregious greed of many corporations and the grinding stress of trying to survive in an excessively bureaucratic winner-take-all society are far more likely to do us in than the explosion of a terrorist bomb.

In essence, since 9/11, the American public has been manipulated by the Bush Administration through a deliberate campaign of fear and induced xenophobia.

Time for some horse sense.