Suicide Bombs—Biggest US Threat

A survey of 117 foreign policy and terrorism experts has determined that “suicide bombs rather than chemical, biological or nuclear weapons are the most serious threat to the United States.”^[1] Indeed, suicide bombings have “accelerated sharply since the September 11 attacks … with hundreds of people killed in Indonesia, Jordan, Israel, Madrid, … London” and Iraq.^[2]

The survey of 117 people, conducted by Foreign Policy and the Center for American Progress, found that suicide bombs “were rated the most likely method of attack by 67 percent of those surveyed.”^[3] Radiological devices (“dirty” bombs) were in second place at 20 percent, followed by chemical weapons (10 percent), biological weapons (9 percent), and nuclear weapons (6 percent).^[4]

The survey—which picked the brains of academics, retired military officers, think tank analysts and former administration, foreign service and intelligence officers—was described as “the first of an annual series to establish a ‘terrorism index.’” The subjects of the survey also believe that an “attack on the scale of the 2005 London or 2004 Madrid bombings—[in which] 56 and 192 people [were] killed respectively—is likely to take place in the United States within the next five years, and 79 percent expect another attack on the scale of 9/11, in which almost 3,000 people were killed.^[5]

For the public, however, it seems that terrorism is far from the most important thing: according to a May CBS poll, only five percent of Americans see terrorism as the most important issue in the United States, trailing far behind the war in Iraq, the economy, immigration, and gasoline prices.^[6] And the public also has an extremely disparate view of US success from that of the experts; while 56 percent of the public thinks the US is winning the “war on terror,” only 13 percent of the experts believe as such.^[7] Furthermore, while only 44 percent of the public believe that the war in Iraq is having a negative impact on the war on terror, 87 percent of the experts think that Iraq is not helping.^[8] The latter view is shared by a British think thank, the Oxford Research Group, which states that “[t]he government’s obsession with the ‘war on terror’ is counterproductive and distracting politicians from more fundamental threats to global security.”^[9]

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[1] Bernd Debusmann, Suicide Bombs Biggest Threat to US: Experts, Reuters, Jun. 13, 2006.
[2] Id.
[3] Id.
[4] Id.
[5] Id.
[6] Id.
[7] Id.
[8] Id.
[9] Richard Norton-Taylor, Climate Change a Bigger Security Threat than Terrorism, Says Report, Guardian (UK), Jun. 12, 2006.