Know your enemy?

Donald Trump's proposed solution to America's national security issues, namely to freeze all immigration by Muslims until we can "figure out what's going on", has everyone steamed, it seems.  Other Republicans are scrambling to be the most decisive Trump Basher, foreign governments are condemning him, and apparently the British Parliament will be considering a resolution that would ban him from entering the UK - that might make statecraft a little more complicated.  The criticisms proclaim Trump's statements as overreaction, hyperbole, pandering, and so on; he's been excoriated from all sides.  But problematically, the seedling at the core of his line of thinking remains essentially unchallenged.  The question about whether or not "radical islamic terrorism" (Ted Cruz repeats this phrase like he has Islamaphobic Tourette's)  is really the civilizational threat that many politicians on the right construct it as - that question is left unexamined in denouncements of Trump that simply focus on the extent of his (ideological or practical) racism.

To put it another way, Trump is being condemned for saying "All Muslims are scary and dangerous!" He's being blasted by a variety of folks who say "Come on, that's a generalization!  Only some Muslims are dangerous!"  The fact that THAT is the meaningful question that some people feel needs to be resolved in order to straighten out our national priorities, that is the problem in and of itself.  Consider the following comparison.

Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks

• 89 people have died from terror attacks committed in America by Muslims
• 420,000 people have been killed in non-terrorism related firearm incidents in America
• 22 million people have died from causes directly attributable to poverty in America***

Trump has warned that we "may be in store for many more 9/11 style attacks if we don't take drastic steps to secure ourselves".  Well, we could have ten 9/11-level events every year and it still wouldn't equal other gun deaths in America.  And the effects of poverty are the equivalent of ten 9/11 attacks EVERY SINGLE WEEK being carried out against the nation's poor by the powerful elites that run America's corporations and institutions and by those easily baited into fearing those who suffer under the thumb of the same masters as they.

If people are concerned about the safety and security of American lives, then they should start paying attention to what kills most Americans.  It's people like Trump (and most of the people criticizing him) that are holding the smoking gun.  It's easy to drum up a scary enemy that can haunt people's imaginations with the abstract possibility of violent attack, but its just a smokescreen for the thousands of acts of micro-scale physical, emotional and spiritual violence carried out against the disempowered of the world, America included.

***If you're interested at how this number was estimated.  Here was my super-rough methodology:
1. A 2011 study by researchers at Columbia's School of Public Health estimated that approximately 4.5% of American deaths are attributable to poverty.
2.  The CDC estimates the annual number of deaths in America at about 2.5 million per year.
3. (Annual Death Rate) x (Percentage attributable to Poverty) x (14 years) = Estimated Total.