John H Woods

uk

it

Proportionality of response would be the best defence against terrorism: in fact an argument can be made that the most effective part of terrorism is inducing a response from governments and the general public out of all proportion to the actual risk.

The worst thing that can happen when a plane comes under the control of terrorists is that the plane itself is used as a weapon, as in 9/11. 7/7 was shocking for the UK and a terrible event, but had a 100 times lower death toll (less than 1/4 of the annual London transport fatality total).

Let's concentrate on mitigating the risks of major events and accept that low level terrorism, whilst an awful thing, claims relatively few lives.