History News Network

Departments

Print this Page

Entries by Marilyn Young

(View All Entries)

Welcome to POTUS. This group blog is devoted to politics, history and presidents.

Saturday, May 5, 2007

Terrorism Stats: Hmm, What Could They Possibly Teach Us?

The 2006 State Department report on Terrorism, 2006, is available online but Scott Shane, reporting deep inside the pages of the New York Times, recently distilled its essence: "the two countries where large number of American combat troops are deployed are also where terrorism is rising fastest."

Statistics tell the tale even more starkly: terrorist attacks are up 91% in Iraq, 53% in Afghanistan but down by 3% in the rest of the known world. It is a Jon Stewart chin-stroking 'hmmmm' moment and the Times turns to its own Terrorism Expert, John Arquilla of the Naval Postgraduate School: "It is most curious that the areas where we have military operations have the most attacks," Arquilla marvels. "These statistics suggest that our war on global terrorism is not going very well. It suggests that we need to try a new approach."

The new approach would seem to be clearly dictated by the statistics: where large numbers of U.S. troops are not, terrorism drops by several percentage points; where they are, terrorist attacks rise dramatically. (All quotes from NY Times, May 1, 2007, p.12)

Posted on Saturday, May 5, 2007 at 1:18 PM | Comments (2) | Top

Home Newsletter Submissions Advertising Donations Archives Internships About Us FAQs Contact Us All Articles