Al Queda is not a threat

Seriously, in fact all the terrorist groups around the world combined are not currently a threat..

You sitting there reading this have only a slightly higher chance of being killed by a terrorist than you have of being eaten by a shark in your neighborhood swimming pool [unless you piss me off, then the chances of the latter goes up dramatically].

Ok so I exaggerate slightly, lets look at the real numbers [using 2003 figures]:

Your chance of dying in a motor vehicle accident

in any particular year is: 1 in 6,498
over your lifetime those odds increase to: 1 in 84

in contrast

Your chance of dying as the result of a terrorist attack

in any particular year is: 1 in 77,292
over your lifetime: 1 in 996

Which means you are 11.9 times more likely to die in your car than by a terrorist attack.
If terrorists are half the problem the media or government makes them out to be, we should nuke detroit.

For comparison, lets look at some other causes of death
with the same approximate odds as dying from a terrorist attack

Intentional self-poisoning Y = 1/53,250 L = 1/686
Intentional self-harm by hanging, strangulation, and suffocation Y = 1/43,836 L= 1/565

So you are 1.45 times more likely to poison yourself and 1.7 times more likely to hang yourself than be killed by a terrorist.

If we look at all forms of intentional self-harm Y = 1/9,238 L = 1/119

Then you are 8.4 times more likely to kill yourself than be killed by a terrorist.


The obvious answer here is to kill you to protect you from the danger you present to yourself.