Given the fact that war and governmental counter-measures are far more dangerous than terrorism, the current panic surrounding anti-terrorism laws is misplaced. Inpidual risk is very low.
Over the last hundred years, perhaps a hundred million people have been killed in war, WWI and WWII being the major conflicts. And over the last hundred years, perhaps a hundred million people have been killed by their government, because they were supposed enemies of the state. Stalin’s purges, Mao Tse Tung’s Cultural Revolution, and Hitler’s final solution, being the major purges. But terrorism has probably killed less than a hundred thousand in this time.
So, given the fact that war and excessive government power are each a thousand times more deadly than terrorism, and will stay that way if weapons of mass destruction are kept out of their hands, what should our response be? Firstly, not to over-react, and, secondly, to promote peace and harmony between and within nations.
To this end, for example, the situation in Pakistan, which is a nuclear power, and has many discontented Muslims, who cannot afford to buy seed to plant crops because of foreign debt, should not go unchecked.