I have heard that all my life, but that just sounds like a pithy saying, not something that is necessarily true.
So what if they create a Martyr? Is Martin Luther King more effective dead? I think he would have been more effective alive.
“So what if they create a Martyr?”
Also depends on where the blame would appear to fall. The more accidental it appears, the less the emotional effect, conspiracy theories notwithstanding.
In our day and age, memories are short. How fast did the patriotic movements huge wave of 9/11 fade away? So you may be right.