Terrorism vs. Disease

The following information is provided for just that reason, information. It is not meant, in any way, to diminish the tragedy of terrorism, or to try and make light of the families scars given to them through acts of terrorism and the senseless loss of human life.

With that said, I hope you find the following short article as interesting as I found the statistics to show.

In 2001 approximately 3000 people were killed by terrorism within the U.S. In the same year, 725,000 Americans were killed by heart disease. Another 550,000 were killed by cancer. Obesity-related deaths claimed around 300,000. Strokes killed another 166,000. Chronic lower respiratory disease 123,000. Diabetes 67,000. Pneumonia/influenza another 67,000. Alzheimer's took 49,000. Osteoporosis, Parkinson's, liver and kidney diseases, and spinal injuries accounted for tens of thousands more. (XTEND-15sec-NEWS / 12th February 2003)

The above statistics beg the question: What if the attention and resources being directed to the recent problem of terrorism was, in some way redirected to the age-old problem of the prevention of diseases, would this not dramatically alter the statistics shown above?