Have We Learned Anything from the Bush Years?

Terrorism is not now, and has never been, an existential threat to the United States. As we've discussed, the threat of dying in a terrorist attack is far smaller than the threat of being hit by lightning. No one's arguing we shouldn't be vigilant against terrorism -- and airline security in particular is a farce, a problem that must be solved, and (frustratingly enough) a problem that can be solved. As is the problem we seem to have of keeping people -- even people who've been flagged by their own families -- on the proper watch lists. But these are law-enforcement problems and intelligence problems. They are not a war.

The war is in our minds, between being scared of our shadows and keeping the true threat in perspective. It's not easy of course -- I'm a New Yorker, every day I get on a subway that could be bombed, that rumbles under what used to be the World Trade Center. But is there any true solution other than to keep a stiff upper lip?

Fear is a powerful weapon -- and there's no reason the American president should act as a force multiplier for Al Qaeda.

To terrorize and destabilize, terrorists need publicity and our complicity. With publicity, even failed terrorist acts succeed in terrorizing; without publicity, terrorism would fade away ... By amplifying and connecting relatively sporadic terrorist acts into a generalized "war," the somewhat marginal phenomenon of terrorism has become a primary preoccupation of our government and people. This transformation puts the lie to the constant refrain by our same leaders that "terrorists will gain nothing."

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