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TRAVEL AND TERRORISM
Since September 11, 2001 and the war on Iraq, the media and the US embassies have flooded up with reports or fear and warnings for Americans not to travel abroad. However, travelers like me don’t seem to be affected. Maybe we’re just crazy or that maybe traveling can help us better understand ourselves as Americans, as people, or that the act itself transcends the mundane 9-5 of our world. Rick Steves, a well know travel connoisseur states that his travel book sale has gone up since the war and that 12 million Americans still go to Europe every year, and not one of them has been killed.
Terrorism is not a new threat to Americans traveling abroad. In the 1970s, we feared the Irish Republican Army and Italy’s Red Brigades. In the ‘90s, we worried about the retaliation of our first round bombs on Baghdad. Then, Muslim extremists had threatened Americans. In this day and age, terrorists threaten to kill and bomb American embassies and civilians around the world.
So what do we do to keep things in perspective while traveling? One option is to cancel your trip. Another is to read up on the country as much as possible in terms of their political stability before planning your trip. Read the papers. Watch the news. Listen to your loved ones because they mostly likely will try to discourage you from going. Another way is to wait after things have died down. If things get shady while you happen to be there, get out as soon as possible. |
