The hopes and fears of all the years

Former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair recently observed that radical Islam is the greatest threat to world peace and stability. (BBC News - Radical Islam is world's greatest threat - Tony Blair . If you get a chance, listen to the interview as well.)
Mr. Blair was focusing his remarks on the direct threats brought about by terrorist violence and the sponsorship of same by Iran. And, while the September 11th attacks remain seared in our consciousness as a terrible time for our country and its people, part of the goal of terrorism is to get us to thinking about nothing but terrorism. In that sense, the terrorists won. They got inside our heads and got us to play their game, not ours.
In 2001, more than 42,000 people were killed in car crashes. Deaths attributed to accidents where alcohol was a factor were five times the number of people killed in the World Trade Centers.
In the Congo, where 5.4 million people have died in its civil war and aftermath. Forty-five thousand people die each month.
But, then, they're black and not on TV so, if it makes the news at all, it has all the relevance as the baseball scores from the Pacific Coast League.
There's no disputing the horrors that the Taliban has afflicted on Afghanistan and Pakistan. There's no question that there are mujahideen who would do violence to us and our way of life.
There's also no doubt that more people will die because of our inaction in relief of those suffering from the Pakistan floods. The U.N. has requested about $500 million for flood relief. There are some 200 people on the Forbes list of richest Americans who could write a check for $500 million and still have a billion dollars left over.
A half-billion dollars is a rounding error for every federal department. Alaska received more than two billion dollars in much-hated stimulus money. Heck, Anchorage received $600 million. If we wanted to win the hearts and minds and bodies of the afflicted of the world, how about we give that money to those truly in need, rather than those proclaim that they don't need, want it, but will take it just the same.
We're seeing frequent reports that the poor of Pakistan will judge us by our response to this crisis. The bad guys are poised to help themselves by helping those who suffer and can do so most easily in our absence.
It's no surprise that we're moved to action most passionately by fear. The trouble is that, as humans, we're not really good at understanding the true dangers. We can rise to action when we have an enemy, be it Osama bin Laden, George Bush, or Barack Obama. When the suffering is caused because of a flood or lack of a functioning government, it's more difficult to act, even as the amount of suffering is several orders of magnitude greater.
And even when our long-term interests are best served by actions of another kind. It's easier to spend a trillion dollars (with a T) on the last war than less than a half a percent of that in an effort to prevent the next one.