http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-10-04/terror-alerts-are-useless
With the USA the most murderous society in the western world (4.3 per 100,000) you are three times more likely to die in a violent incident in the USA, than anywhere in Western Europe, with or without terrorists.
It strikes me that is is simply a massive ass-covering exercise, as in, “We would never be forgiven if there ever was an incident and it was proved we had prior information it was possible”.
“Terrorism hurts us most not when it kills people, but when it uses our own clouded judgment as a force multiplier that inspires us to weaken ourselves in a thousand ways big and small.”
I spent many of my evenings during the first Gulf War, sitting out in our garden, in Bahrain, listening to the bombers roaring overhead every night, on their way to raining death and destruction on Iraq, trying to finish off our liquor stocks with friends, before Saddam Hussein came storming over the causeway, and took it off us!
Of course I was frightened when occasionally a misguided missile, destined for Saudi Arabia, landed a mile or so away. It didn’t help to have an idiot director in Head Office to whom I reported, telling me that they weren’t aiming for me, and it would be an accident if one did take me out! But to scare American travellers under their kitchen tables with “Alerts” that terrorists may be planning an attack on Europe, is idiocy of a far higher order, IMHO.
Boadicea's Chariot 
Thanks for those cheery stats CWj, I’m off to Washington DC next week for a few days so I had better watch my step. I think you hit the nail on the head when you mentioned that people would never forgive us…..etc etc. It’s got to the stage where even the slightest suggestion of something is enough to get the rumor mill grinding and the outrage bus fired up. As a boxer said once after getting hammered in the ring, “I shoulda stood in bed”.
DC is one of my favourite cities in the Spring, for the cherry blossom, and its fabulous museums and galleries. I am sure you will have taken them in on a previous trip, but if not, it’s worth taking some time off to do so.
Do remind them that it took a Frenchman to design their Capital city for them, and what a great job he did of it!
CWj
It’s not an official state visit this time as MrsOMG is not coming with me. I’m going over to see an exhibition at the Smithsonian so you can rest assured that I will be saying hello again too all the museums and other sites as well.
The one I wasn’t expecting to be as interesting was the Museum of the American Indian, which from memory is within walking distance of the Smithsonian – fascinating. I was also moved by the Vietnam Memorial Wall and the people there every day, looking for their loved ones’ names…if you haven’t taken it in already, the US Senate is worth a visit. I think they have public tours, although we were lucky enough to have been shown around by one of Senator Kyl’s staffers. I had no idea that there was a private underground “toy train” network connecting the various government office buildings to the Senate, so they never need to go above ground to travel from their offices to the Senate/Congress.
Thanks for the info. I have booked myself on to a tour of the Capitol building and have emailed my MP to see if he can arrange a pass to Congress and the Senate. The British Embassy have been really helpful and have put me in touch with a guy who can arrange a tour of the Pentagon for me. I never considered the Museum of the American Indian so I will add that to my list. I agree about the Vietnam Memorial, very stark and simple but so dignified, I was taken with the volunteer guides who will help you find a loved ones name and even supply a set of step ladders if the name is high up on the wall.
And the money for the Smithsonian came from a British benefactor, James Smithson, who never actually visited the US. http://www.inspirationline.com/Brainteaser/smithsonian.htm
Re Murder rates, this site is quite interesting: Columbia tops the log with SA in 2nd place and a rate 10 times that of the USA. The US rate is 3 times that of the UK.
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_mur_percap-crime-murders-per-capita
Sipu, Undoubtedly there are more dangerous places than the USA, and to a statistician a 4.3:100,000 is insignificant in terms of risk. Many of the more violent places involve gang-on-gang murders, I think, so unless you are hanging out with heroin dealers and suppliers, or get caught in the crossfire somewhere there is a shootout, you can probably take the view you’ll be fine! Then there are the garden spots like Zaire during the civil war, the Southern Sudan bloodbath, the Rwanda genocide of the Tutu where about a million people were killed when the Hutu militas ran amok – not a great time and place to have been a Tutu…
Incidentally you will note from the chart to which you refer us, that many of the countries in the Middle East are amongst the safest places in the world to live, in terms of the death by murder statistics – about one-tenth of the UK’s rate, in Saudi Arabia.
CWJ, I agree with you about the statistical insignificance of these figures with regards to risk. I always find it useful to work out the likelihood of survival. Its about 99.95% here in SA, which is good enough for me, though the way they kill people here is not much fun.
Most killings in the USA are (I am told) restricted to the non-white community. The terrorists in Europe are on the lookout for white Americans to murder.
Sipu, David: Most murders in the US are committed by males (65%). 47% of the male victims and 63% of the female victims are either family or an acquaintance of the perpetrator. 46% are white on white crimes, 40% are Black on Black.
The moral seems to be “Stay away from your family and friends”
LW – Note to self: Extremely important not to tell Right Brain where I keep the key to my firearms cabinet…
In August a German teacher was killed when she was with her husband at Union Square in San Francisco. A stray bullet from a Filipino gunfight hit her.
It depends on where in the USA. In some places like California, Nevada, and Florida crime is far too high for comfort. In some places like North Dakota and Nebraska it is far better. Probably because people know that they would end up with a bullet in the head and resting in a shallow grave in some field far from anywhere.