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by simpleTruth 5533 days ago
I have no idea how you can measure such things, but several serial killers have terrorized large areas for fairly long periods of time. 9/11 may have been dramatic, but it was over fairly quickly so the terror was short lived, and it also took several people which hurts on the / attackers side.

PS: I watched it live on TV missed the first attack, but saw the other two get reported and personally I was never really that strongly impacted. More WTF? than run for the hills.
1 comments
TillE 5533 days ago
My favorite cheap method of terrorism is the DC sniper times ten. It requires no real coordination and very little money, yet causes a huge sustained impact.

Fortunately, it seems that the number of motivated crazy people in the world is fairly low.

> personally I was never really that strongly impacted

I'm guessing you don't live in the New York area. Events can seem a bit unreal if you have no personal stake in them. It may seem trivial next to the loss of life, but looking at that hole in the Manhattan skyline where the towers used to be is still a bit tragic.

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simpleTruth 5533 days ago
Yea, I was thinking of the whole DC sniper thing. There was a similar indecent at an army base (fort hood), but the random nature of the targets and the length of time between attacks was far more threatening to people.

I could see a changed "Manhattan skyline" as a significant impact for many people. For a while I could see the section of the pentagon hit by the airplane outside my window, but there is little lasting visible impact on the structure. Internally, they did a fair amount of renovation for example added some glow strips on the floor pointing to the exits which seems like a good idea, and gas makes which seems less useful (and more creepy). You can even go on tours of the pentagon which seems risky, but I suspect the benefits outweighs the risks.

However, that's all fairly long term effects. As to being up close and personal, a coworker of mine was in a conference room when 1/2 the people at the table where taken yet he had no problem going back to work at the pentagon. Sure, it's a target, but numbers suggest being a truck driver to be a far more dangerous profession.

When it comes down to it terrorism is simply not that effective. Several paces have had sustained terrorist attacks for long periods of time and people don't react that much.

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