Overblown: How Politicians and the Terrorism Industry Inflate National Security Threats, and Why We Believe Them

by John E. Mueller

Why have there been no terrorist attacks in the United States since 9/11? It is ridiculously easy for a single person with a bomb-filled backpack, or a single explosives-laden automobile, to launch an attack. So why hasn't it happened? The answer is surely not the Department of Homeland Security, which cannot stop terrorists from entering the country, legally or otherwise. It is surely not the Iraq war, which has stoked the hatred of Muslim extremists around the world and wasted many thousands of lives. Terrorist attacks have been regular events for many years -- usually killing handfuls of people, occasionally more than that. Is it possible that there is a simple explanation for the peaceful American homefront? Is it possible that there are no al-Qaeda terrorists here ? Is it possible that the war on terror has been a radical overreaction to a rare event? 80,000 Arab and Muslim immigrants have been subjected to fingerprinting and registration, and more than 5,000 foreign nationals have been imprisoned -- yet there has not been a single conviction for a terrorist crime in America. A handful of plots -- some deadly, some intercepted -- have plagued Europe and elsewhere, and even so, the death toll has been modest. We have gone to war in two countries and killed tens of thousands of people. We have launched a massive domestic wiretapping program and created vast databases of information once considered private. Politicians and pundits have berated us about national security and patriotic duty, while encroaching our freedoms and sending thousands of young men off to die. It is time to consider the hypothesis that dare not speak its we have wildly overreacted. Terrorism has been used by murderous groups for many decades, yet even including 9/11, the odds of an American being killed by international terrorism are microscopic. In general, international terrorism doesn't do much damage when considered in almost any reasonable context. The capacity of al-Qaeda or of any similar group to do damage in the United States pales in comparison to the capacity other dedicated enemies, particularly international Communism, have possessed in the past. Lashing out at the terrorist threat is frequently an exercise in self-flagellation because it is usually more expensive than the terrorist attack itself and because it gives the terrorists exactly what they are looking for. Much, probably most, of the money and effort expended on counterterrorism since 2001 (and before, for that matter) has been wasted. The terrorism industry and its allies in the White House and Congress have preyed on our fears and caused enormous damage. It is time to rethink the entire enterprise and spend much smaller amounts on only those things that do intelligence, law enforcement, and disruption of radical groups overseas. Above all, it is time to stop playing into the terrorists' hands, by fear-mongering and helping spread terror itself.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Terrorism, History

272 pages, Hardcover

First published November 14, 2006

About the author

John E. Mueller (born June 21, 1937) is an American political scientist in the field of international relations as well as a scholar of the history of dance. [Wikipedia]

Reviews

[Joseph Stieb · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are some article versions of this book that have received more readership, but overall I think the author is right that the United States did overreact to the terrorist threat and that there's a strong tendency to overreaction in general among national security leaders/experts. Still, the book gets a little repetitive; the articles are more tightly argued and less caustic in tone than this book, which is nonetheless a helpful antidote to panic-mongering.

[Robert Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terrorist win if we get terrorized !

[Sean Rosenthal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting Quotes:

There are quite a few elemental aspects of the terrorism issue that have been almost entirely ignored in the media. For example, the suggestion that an American's chance of being killed by a terrorist is very, very small. Or that another hijacking attack like the ones on 9/11 is impossible because passengers and crew would forcefully interfere. Or that chemical weapons can't wreak mass destruction...[S]houldn't they at least be DISCUSSED in the media?"

-John Mueller, Overblown


"The threats...confronted in World War II could be fully eliminated by conquering the offending countries...Terrorism is much more like crime than like war...Like crime, terrorism cannot be 'crushed.' However, its incidence and impact can...be reduced, and some of its perpetrators can be put out of business. This is likely to come about through patient, diligent, and persistent international police work rather than through costly ill-conceived wars based on tenuous reasoning."

-John Mueller, Overblown

[Craigtator · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's depressing that this book has 7 reviews and 57 ratings (as of me writing this). The book has been out for 10 years.

Although not particularly elegantly or engagingly written, it has an important message. Just like with the Cold War, Castro, the Japanese economic miracle, and the Ayatollah, the US has managed to grossly overestimate and over react to the threat of Islamic terrorism.

The fact that countervailing opinions such of these are never heard just shows how powerful the emotion of fear is.

[Damion]

I'm in trouble with the library for keeping this one out so long. Using past events like Pearl Harbor and McCarthyism to analyze our present crisis, Mueller gives us a picture of where the Bush administration is going wrong and how to fix it. The fact that he is an academic writing recommendations keeps this book from being yet another pundit's exercise in masturbatory ranting.

[Frank · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author makes some good points, and talks about an important issue that gets almost zero media attention. Good book overall; although to get through it you should have an enthusiasm for an in-depth treatment of the subject.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very thought-provoking book. I agreed with some ideas, thought others should be better documented, and disagreed with a few ideas. On the whole, easy to read and definitely gets your mind working...which is the point of the book!

[Leonard Pierce · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid if unspectacular entry in the vital recent trend in recent political writing towards "fear theory". Mueller's prose isn't spectacular and the book is more informative than revelatory, but it's a good place to start, and one of the first entries in the field.

[Frank · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting take on the "terror-industrial" complex.

[Jason Keisling · Rating 5 out of 5]

It gets redundant at times, but overall this is a good criticism of terrorism hysteria and how the media and politicians use fear mongering to inflate terrorism.