The World Is More Complicated Than Most of Us Think

The attacks in Mumbai last week were terrible. We should, however, keep them in context. There are nearly 60 million deaths in the world per year. Indeed, the World Health Organization suggests that we should take into account the age at which people die and the degree of disability that they suffer, and we thinking about deaths we probably underestimate the threats to man. It is a mistake to spend too much time and effort reducing terrorism if that means we will spend less time and effort reducing other sources of death and disability, especially since there are so many interventions that would do more good that further efforts to eradicate terrorism.



We should also not leap to the assumption that the Pakistanis are responsible for the attack. You might read about:

• Terrorism in India
• Terrorism in Bangladesh

Even were we to be sure that the terrorists came from, or received support from Pakistan, it would be important to figure out who in Pakistan bore responsibility to what degree.

The Bush administration's invasion of Iraq should serve as a warning about our ignorance of foreign lands and the dangers of acting on the basis of that ignorance.