Current Event Summary

Hysteria Makes ISIS Stronger Kurt Eichenwald

This article focuses on the irrationalism in Americans when it comes to Terrorism.
For example, it is more likely that an American will be killed in a car accident
every year, yet they fear terrorist attacks more than getting in a car accident.
Eichenwald claims that this is probably because no matter how hard law
enforcement tries, the possibility of another attack is close to a hundred percent.
The thought that although thousands of attacks are stopped, one will eventually slip
through undetected drives people crazy with paranoia. National hysteria makes it
possible for terrorist groups such as ISIS to have more attacks that are successful
with little work because the country does not act as a whole. For example, he
(Eichenwald) claims that after the successful attack of 9/11, the country unified
and became a giant monster, that worked to terminate Al-Qaeda and it eventually
succeeded. However, after an unsuccessful attack such as the Boston marathon
bombing the country separated. It turned Americans against each other, for
instance, many Americans blamed the Obama administration for the attack,
claiming he had not done enough to prevent it. It also talks about the differences
between Al-Qaeda and ISIS. It says that Americans are definitely being more
irrational because ISIS is not as big as a threat as Al-Qaeda was. Al-Qaeda had a
strong leader and military equipment, whereas ISIS has a muddled leadership. In
addition, it says that its financial system is crude and vulnerable. Finally, the
article talks about the biggest difference between the two, that unlike Al-Qaeda,
ISIS does not have support from the Muslim population and is often criticized by
them.