As we enter the second year of 9/11’s second decade, anxieties about terrorism in the United States haven’t declined — even though no Islamist terrorist has been able to detonate even the simplest of bombs in the United States, even though there has been no sizable attack in the country, even though Osama bin Laden has been expunged, and even though an American’s chance of being killed by a terrorist is about one in 3.5 million per year.
The war on terror, therefore, is likely to be with us for a very long time. Not only is there as yet no light at the end of the tunnel, but it might have no end at all.
Since the public remains terrorized, it seems likely to continue uncritically to support extravagant counterterrorism expenditures, including incessant security checks, civil-liberties intrusions, expanded police powers, harassment at airports, and militarized forays overseas if they can convincingly be associated with the quest to stamp out terrorism.
The war in Iraq and economic woes pushed terrorism down on the list of immediate concerns, and some of the most intense anxieties did decline in the few weeks after the 9/11 attacks. However, people clearly continue to deem it an ominous threat, and the absence of further substantial decline in subsequent years, and now decades, is striking.
In November 2001, about 35 percent of the public were very or somewhat worried that they or a family member would become a victim of terrorism. A decade later, 34 percent profess the same fear. And 75 percent consider another major attack in the near future to be very or somewhat likely, about the same as in early 2002.
The percentage holding that the terrorists are as capable as ever of launching another major attack is the same now as it was in 2002. Nor has there been much change since that time in the number who are willing to trade civil liberties for security or have confidence in the government’s ability to prevent or to protect them from further terrorism.
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