I’ll qualify it again; since 2001, America has been hit worse by terrorism than anywhere else in Europe. I should have been more clear in the original post. It’s only since 2001 that these measures have been enacted, making it more difficult to travel here.
It’s no secret that Europe and the rest of the world have more experience dealing with these kinds of things, but very much like Japan bringing WWII to our front door, when those buildings were knocked down, they brought the fight to us and in typical American fashion, we responded with everything we had, for better or worse. When these things happen here, we’re very much like the small child who gets struck by a parent for the first time, we cry, we wring our hands, we get angry and we react, we over-react. Sometimes, that over-reaction is a good thing, sometimes not, but it is what it is.
I would assume that you get used to it…used to some irregular inconvenience in getting around, used to being on the lookout for strange objects in public places. At the same time, unlike here, the inconveniences associate with security in those places CAN’T be as intrusive as things like TSA screenings, because they’re not occasional nuisances, they’re near-constant.
You posted it yourself…Americans aren’t used to it, so when the attack happened, we overreacted. And since we don’t have any kind of model to use in our day-to-day lives for this sort of thing, we accept the occasional massive nuisance (like TSA screenings) as the (irritating) norm.
Nonsense. Once again; little of what has been done in the “war against terror” has had anything to do with terrorism; its been about going after Americans the government in power doesn’t like. The Bush Administration was going after people like journalists, the ACLU and the Quakers with “anti-terror” measures far in preference to Al Qaeda.
There IS no war on terror; just the occasional skirmish. We aren’t any safer at all.
Among other murderous mayhem, yes. And in key districts, never mind the pubs.
Yes, in fact you do. Without all the elaborate theatre as in the USA.
I’m amused (in a sour way) to see the fortresses that American Embassies have become, versus say the French - also targets and more so in some places I work - and UK facilities that manage not to look like the paranoid security theatre centres that American facilities look like.
I really wonder what the point is now for you, having things like cultural centres no one can be bothered to visit because you’ve turned your facilities into bunkers.
A point that is being missed here, and I briefly tried to introduce: nobody is against security measures, after all, no tourist wants to be blown up over American aerospace.
The problem is the hellish procedures implemented post 9/11. The rest of the world somehow managed to implement some/a lot of procedures that weren’t as intrusive and inconvenient to the public. Europe derives massive amounts of money from tourism, they have to balance the need for security, both for locals as well as tourists, with ease of travel and friendly practices. I just know I am not more inconvenienced now than I was before, and it would be stupid to believe they haven’t revised their systems post 9/11-3/11 too.
The world *believes *the US is not tourist-friendly. You have to do some massive PR campaign to reassure people things are better now.
Here’s the thing to remember about modern America: we’re drama queens, if the trigger happens to us. Probably not 3 out of 10 non-State-Department-employee Americans (number courtesy my ass) even thought about IRA or ETA or Shining Path or Shinju Whatever violence before 9/11, because it was happening to other people, somewhere else. And had been happening for decades, if not centuries. But once it happened to us, terrorism became the vilest, most despicable crime on the face of the Earth, and terrorists and their host countries had to be weeded out, root and branch (unless they were allies! cf. Saudi Arabia). Total security became necessary. Lock the gates! The barbarians are coming!
I was pretty much over that phase within a week of 9/11. Unfortunately, not true of everyone else (who didn’t have good reason to still be affected, like WTC widows).
You know why they call them “terrorists”? Because their main weapon is terror. Not bombs, not guns, not even airplanes - terror. They fight with the intent to cause pants-shitting fear in their opponents. And the US public (spurred on by both the government and the media) have obliged them wholeheartedly. Fear is now the primary domestic product of America. We shock and awe ourselves into demanding that the government do everything in its power to keep us safe from the Scary Bad Men out there.
I moved to London in the mid-'90s, just in time for a renewed round of IRA bombings. A bus on one of my regular routes was blown up, and a bomb went off outside the building directly across the street from where I am now (killing 2 and injuring 39). A number of other plots were stopped by the police, including a plan to firebomb ten shops down the street from where I was living at the time.
A few years later some Neo-Nazi nutjob began planting nailbombs around town, hoping to trigger a race war. And then of course there were the July 7, 2005 bombings (I fortunately came into work early that morning and thus missed all the “excitement”) and the various subsequent attempts foiled either by the police or by the bombers’ own incompetence.
My point is this: people keep trying to blow me* up. They do this because they want me to be scared. Sorry, but it ain’t happening. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance, not eternal cowering under the bedsheets. Giving in to fear is letting the terrorists win.
(Sorry for the rant - the “But…but… but…9/11!” stuff has been pissing me off for a while now.)
*Not me specifically, obviously.