COMBATTING TERRORISM

Victor Bloom MD

This TERRORISM we keep hearing about is something we must combat, but this is no ordinary war in which the main objectives are physical and easily definable. We could combat Nazism and Japanese imperialism, we could even combat Soviet communism, and we emerged as the only remaining superpower. It was a heady feeling, one that made us feel invulnerable, but September 11 finished all that. Think of it, in all the great wars of the 20th century our beautiful mainland was inviolate. In spite of the bombings of London, Berlin and Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, not a single American city was touched. We felt protected by the two great oceans and the most powerful military machine in the world.

But on that fateful day, everything changed. We are no longer untouchable. What happened was inconceivable, unthinkable, and that is why it happened; our security measures against terrorist attack never considered the possibility of such an outrageous, audacious and ingenious attack. It never occurred to us that anyone could be so mean, so malevolent and destructive. We think we are such a good people, that no one would want to hurt us. Previous terrorist attacks were few and exceptional. Now the psychology is that we are going to have to live with the possibility always. Now we know something bad can happen anywhere, anytime--- things we can hardly imagine--- all sorts of tricks and no treats. Goblins, monsters and demons are lurking everywhere and anywhere and can hurt us anytime.

Such a 'reality' can give rise to anxiety, the kind psychiatrists call 'free-floating' anxiety. And it's not the kind of anxiety we want to deal with tranquilizers, booze or denial. We have to be knowledgeable and alert. We have to go on living. And we don't want to live in fear. And we don't have to live in fear.

"The only thing we have to fear is fear, itself." Those were the watchwords of the Great Depression and they carried through The Great War. We were going to survive. We were going to stand strong. We were going to prevail. During that time, we tightened our belts, young people went to war and fought and died, but we triumphed over evil. We learned a bitter lesson but we learned how to win. During that time we endured rationing and we tolerated anxiety, we went on with life and worked hard and kept a sense of humor.

A sense of humor keeps a sense of perspective, and our perspective now is that we are searching and destroying a criminal element in the world, one that is conspiring against us for irrational reasons. The World Trade Center was a Big One--- we even call the location, "ground zero," which is what we called the center of the explosion of the atom bomb in Hiroshima. The destruction of the World Trade Center is the closest we hope we will ever come to anything like Hiroshima, where over a hundred thousand people were killed, not three thousand. But the similarities are there--- war and massive destruction of civilians.

We kept waiting for the other shoe to drop, another skyscraper, another city, or bridges and tunnels, stadiums or shopping centers. It hasn't happened. Maybe they have shot their wad and all we have to do is root them out. But there are reverberations--- endless bomb scares and warnings, government advice to be watchful and alert. But how? What to look for? We don't like having to keep looking over our shoulders and thinking about danger, but now it is a necessary reality.

Still, life goes on, football games and tailgate parties and the World Series. Lots of concentrations of people in stadiums, and no bombs. Nothing bad happened on Hallowe'en. They want us to stop shopping and playing. They want to destroy our way of life and our economy. We can't let them. We need to remind ourselves of another reality besides the terrorist threat. We have to think of the odds. So far our chances of being directly hit is infinitesimal. We have to remind ourselves of that. People still get hit by lightning or die in automobile collisions. People die of the flu. It is probably more dangerous to encounter a drunk behind the wheel of an automobile than a terrorist. A trunk driver is a terrorist. So are those who mischievously make bomb threats or anthrax scares. These people have to be caught and punished, and it is much better to prevent these events before they happen.

In case you are worried about anthrax or smallpox, be aware that our doctors are being brought up to speed by the Internet, the latest information on the diagnosis and treatment of anthrax, the latest thinking on the prevention of a smallpox epidemic. We have been caught unawares, but the fact is that nothing much has happened since the destruction of the World Trade Center. There were a few cases of death by anthrax, but I expect the perpetrators will soon be caught and the network stopped. It's only a matter of time before some anthrax deliverer gets sick and dies, and the source will be located and stopped.

In the meantime, we need to keep our sense of humor and go about our lives pretty much as before. Did you hear the one about our Detroit Lions? With apologies to the most rabid of humorless fans:

Detroit Lions early morning football practice was delayed on Wednesday for nearly two hours at the Lions practice facility. One of the players, while on his way to the field happened to look down and notice a suspicious looking, unknown white powdery substance on the practice field. The coaches immediately suspended practice while the Michigan State Police and FBI were called into investigate. After a complete field analysis, the FBI determined that the white substance unknown to the players was the goal line. Practice was resumed when the FBI Special Agents decided that the team would not be likely to encounter the substance again.

Dr. Bloom is a psychiatrist in Grosse Pointe Park and Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry. He welcomes comments to his email address: vbloom@comcast.net.