Be not afraid Republicans - Americans have never been safer - Obama is correct

[NotfooledbyW]

Be Not Afraid.
When President Obama tells Americans to stop worrying, he’s accused of fecklessness. But he has a point: we have never been safer. JONATHAN RAUCH. FEB 16 2015, 8:08 PM ET

Be Not Afraid The Atlantic


Obama said last August: “I promise you things are much less dangerous now than they were 20 years ago, 25 years ago, or 30 years ago. This is not something that is comparable to the challenges we faced during the Cold War.”

Some excerpts to lead thinking people to read the entire article and discuss it because in reality Obama is right - Americans are now living in a world that is much safer than it was twenty years ago at least.

Obama is presiding over the most peaceful time in human history. All the violence in Iraq is still about half of what it was in 2006 except now Americans are not being killed in large numbers there.

"War between major nation-states has dwindled to the verge of extinction"

. According to Steven Pinker, the author of The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, today is probably the most peaceful time in human history. By the numbers, he writes, “the world was a far more dangerous place” in the 1960s, ’70s, and ’80s. According to the Uppsala Conflict Data Program, armed conflicts have declined by almost 40 percent since right after the end of the Cold War. “Today,” write Micah Zenko and Michael A. Cohen in Foreign Affairs, “wars tend to be low-intensity conflicts that, on average, kill about 90 percent fewer people than did violent struggles in the 1950s.” War between major nation-states has dwindled to the verge of extinction. In the context of human evolution, this is an astounding development.

Criminal violence is way down but Americans celebrate this extraordinary success by denying it:

. Here at home, criminal violence is, as ever, a serious problem. But its reduction over the past couple of decades is one of the great success stories of our time. The violent-crime rate (which excludes homicides) has declined by more than 70 percent since the early 1990s. The homicide rate has declined by half, and in 2011 it reached the lowest level since 1963. According to the National Crime Victimization Survey, between 1995 and 2010 the rate of rape and sexual assault fell from five per 1,000 females to two.

And how do Americans celebrate this extraordinary success? By denying it.

"As for the risk posed by terrorism inside the United States, .... Americans are about four times as likely to drown in their bathtub as they are to die in a terrorist attack:

.Perception is even more skewed where terrorism is concerned. “Terror-ism Worries Largely Unchanged,” ran another Pew headline, also in 2013. That year, 58 percent of the public was worried about another terrorist attack in the United States, a rate not all that much lower in October 2001, immediately after the 9/11 attacks, when 71 percent of the public was worried. A few months ago, perhaps influenced by ISIS’s atrocities, a large plurality of respondents told NBC News/Wall Street Journal pollsters that the country is less safe than it was before 9/11.

Reality, once again, tells us otherwise. State-sponsored international terrorism, writes the intelligence analyst Paul R. Pillar in Cato’s A Dangerous World?, “is today only a shadow of what it was in the 1970s and 1980s.” As for the risk posed by terrorism inside the United States, to characterize it as trivial would be very generous. Americans are about four times as likely to drown in their bathtub as they are to die in a terrorist attack. John Mueller of Ohio State University and Mark G. Stewart of Australia’s University of Newcastle estimate the odds of such deaths at one in 950,000 and one in 3.5 million, respectively.

Can any matter-of-factly dispute the finding mentioned in this article?

 

[SassyIrishLass]

LOL @ The Atlantic, loon site

 

[Stephanie]

that must be why the PEOPLE kicked out Democrats from control of Congress under Obambam in only six years and gave it over to REPUBLICANS..... they be feeling way more safe.

man we need puddle boots with this crap propaganda coming out these days.

gawd help us some people still fall for this and vote

 

[MACAULAY]

The World was very much at peace in 1935-1938. The "War to end all Wars" was over and no such war was ever going to occur again.

Hitler had only 30 million Germans. Iran has 77 million...they are led by mullahs who are just as crazy as Hitler....they are sitting on a mountain of oil, and will likely have a nuclear bomb before the fool Obama leaves office.

Nevile Chamberlain went to see Hitler and came home with a piece of paper which he announced secured "peace in our time."

Obama and that fool Kerry are about to show us a similar piece of paper from the mullahs.

I have children. What about Peace in their Time?

 

[Harry Dresden]

maybe from outside but what about in the Country?....things seem to be getting worse ....

 

[SassyIrishLass]

Hey Foo, your author is an openly gay, left loon, pacifist. Find a new source

 

[Stephanie]

SNIP:
Poll: The backlash against Obama’s foreign policy has begun
posted at 5:21 pm on March 27, 2015 by Noah Rothman

• 156 SHARES

Presidential aides and democratic officials aren’t even trying to disguise it anymore. Quote after quote provided to the press by unnamed sources or uttered aloud by White House advisors in what were thought to be private moments indicates that the administration sees a prospective nuclear agreement with Iran as Barack Obama’s final positive legacy achievement as president.

The president must be hoping that history vindicates his actions, because the polls sure aren’t. As the security environment in the middle east continues to deteriorate, the public is expressing dissatisfaction with how Obama has approached relations with America’s adversaries and allies alike.

ALL of it here:
Poll The backlash against Obama s foreign policy has begun Hot Air

 

[Obiwan]

Let's see....

Terrorists like ISIS stronger.....check

Iran on fast track to get nukes...check

Ferguson burned...check

Cop killings.....check

Yep, sure sounds safe to me..

 

[auditor0007]

The World was very much at peace in 1935-1938. The "War to end all Wars" was over and no such war was ever going to occur again.

Hitler had only 30 million Germans. Iran has 77 million...they are led by mullahs who are just as crazy as Hitler....they are sitting on a mountain of oil, and will likely have a nuclear bomb before the fool Obama leaves office.

Nevile Chamberlain went to see Hitler and came home with a piece of paper which he announced secured "peace in our time."

Obama and that fool Kerry are about to show us a similar piece of paper from the mullahs.

I have children. What about Peace in their Time?

North Korea has nuclear bombs. Are you shaking in your shoes over the thought of that, or do you laugh at the thought that they are a major threat to the US? Here's the thing; eventually Iran will have nuclear capabilities, one way or another. Sure, we can prevent it for now, for a short time, but eventually they will have a bomb. As for Iran's 77 million, do you worry that they are going to become that big of a threat militarily? Really? Remember what our military did to Iraq in a few short weeks? We could easily do the same to Iran if the need ever arose. Reagan said peace through strength, and we still have that strength. No country is going to push us to show it.

 

[MACAULAY]

The World was very much at peace in 1935-1938. The "War to end all Wars" was over and no such war was ever going to occur again.

Hitler had only 30 million Germans. Iran has 77 million...they are led by mullahs who are just as crazy as Hitler....they are sitting on a mountain of oil, and will likely have a nuclear bomb before the fool Obama leaves office.

Nevile Chamberlain went to see Hitler and came home with a piece of paper which he announced secured "peace in our time."

Obama and that fool Kerry are about to show us a similar piece of paper from the mullahs.

I have children. What about Peace in their Time?

North Korea has nuclear bombs. Are you shaking in your shoes over the thought of that, or do you laugh at the thought that they are a major threat to the US? Here's the thing; eventually Iran will have nuclear capabilities, one way or another. Sure, we can prevent it for now, for a short time, but eventually they will have a bomb. As for Iran's 77 million, do you worry that they are going to become that big of a threat militarily? Really? Remember what our military did to Iraq in a few short weeks? We could easily do the same to Iran if the need ever arose. Reagan said peace through strength, and we still have that strength. No country is going to push us to show it.

________________________________________

Neville? Neville Chamberlain? Is that you Neville?

 

[Katzndogz]

Let's see....

Terrorists like ISIS stronger.....check

Iran on fast track to get nukes...check

Ferguson burned...check

Cop killings.....check

Yep, sure sounds safe to me..

Random beatings.....check
Mob attacks...... check
Regional war in the middle east.... check

I feel safer alteady.

 

[Obiwan]

Oh and I forgot to add millions of illegals running around loose when we have no idea who they are, coupled with a Border Patrol that's been ordered to help them stay.


.

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

"Be not afraid Republicans - Americans have never been safer - Obama is correct"

That the president is correct is what republicans are frightened of.

 

[blackhawk]

Is this the same Obama who told the nation if you like your current doctor and insurance plan you will be able to keep them period? If so you will forgive me if I question his word on this.

 

[NotfooledbyW]

maybe from outside but what about in the Country?....things seem to be getting worse ....

Why not read the article - it is very well explained on that topic early on.

 

[Obiwan]

And did I forget to add the ME in flames, including Obama's rousing success in Yemen, while a nuclear arms race is starting in the region?

Yep, I can see why the loony left would call that safe...

 

[NotfooledbyW]

"Historians will thank him, even if we don’t, for his steadfastness in the face of unprecedented safety."

BH 11067099

If so you will forgive me if I question his word on this.

Not asking you to accept Obama's word on this. I was hoping for signs of intelligent life out there that would read the article and respond with an argument against the data and facts cited in the report that confirms that what Obama said is in fact true.

The last paragraph expresses well what I am certain will Obama's legacy despite all the social media and news media and political fear mongering that goes on. Fear sells and helps win elections. And now ironically more than ever when reasons to be afraid are at all time lows.

"Still, now is special. Given how safe we are, and how frightened people nonetheless feel, it seems unlikely that Americans’ threat perception has ever before been quite as distorted as it is today. Never have so many feared so little, so much. In an era of overreaction, a president who lectures the public about its insecurities, instead of pandering to its fears, necessarily seems impolitic, out of touch, tone-deaf, pedantic, negligent, complacent—choose your adjective. For precisely that reason, we can be grateful his instinct is to underreact. Historians will thank him, even if we don’t, for his steadfastness in the face of unprecedented safety."

 

[Obiwan]

NotfooledbyW

I did read it, and I gave you my facts. Do you dispute them?

 

[MACAULAY]

The problem with the article that the O.P. is so proud of, is that it is necessary to trust a President who is known to be a Liar and who has not demonstrated any capacity for handling foreign affairs.

From the job he has done so far, you would think he was nothing more than a Community Organizer in some rotting city in the North.

And his team! His team scares me almost as much as the mullahs and Putin.

John Kerry, Susan Rice, Valerie Jarrett....Good God.

 

[Harry Dresden]

"Be not afraid Republicans - Americans have never been safer - Obama is correct"

That the president is correct is what republicans are frightened of.

why are you too "frightened" jones to actually participate in this forum?...why are you too "frightened" to answer questions about the shit you throw up?....