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Originally Posted by Bebe
Also, 9/11 was not exactly a huge thing - these kinds of terrorist attacks have occurred a lot.
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Originally Posted by pala
I think it stems from the fact that most americans seem to think our country is some impenetrable fortress. That we're somehow "above" what the rest of the world goes through. 9-11 was the largest death toll in a terrorist attack on the mainland US. So of course these people who think we're untouchable would have a lasting memory of this event, much the same as Pearl Harbor, or to a lesser extent the Oklahoma City bombing.
I also think we need to start to realize the "War on Terror" ranks up there with the "War on Drugs". We're not going to stop terrorism, just like we're not going to stop drugs. You try to do what you can, but any extra effort is just wasted chasing some idealogical war that is never going to end.
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Basically it boils down to the fact that the U.S. hasn't had a real scare since the Cold War, so politicians have to generate fear. As Machiavelli once said, fear is one of the best ways to rule. So if you are constantly applying pressure and fear to someone, they get tense and think irrationally and that is the tool that has been used that caused a lot of short-term thinking legislation to pass through the past few decades which has further depleted us of our rights and privileges we once held so dear. And the rationalizing is, most people in fear would give up some rights for safety. Only thing is we aren't really in as much danger as were back in the Cold War when Nuclear missiles used to be aimed at us. So by constantly generating little things go be scared at you just keep jumping and jumping instead of taking a pause to think (i.e. drugs, terrorist cells, gangs, illiegal immigration, The Gays, Baby killers, etc). And before you realized it you've given up all your rights and George Orwell looks like a prophet.
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Also look at past speeches of Eisenhower and Kennedy when they talk about the imminent threat of the miltary industrial complex taking over and causing needless wars (Eisenhower) or how they dread the day when leaders are judged by their religion or influenced by them (Kennedy). It's sad how we allowed this to happen.