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In the weeks and months following 911, the American people were shocked into an awareness of danger that can only be described as a nerve laid bare. We accepted the fact that air travel was going to be more inconvenient and that the need for added security measures in all areas would need to be tightened up. As 911 receded and the TV action in Afghanistan gradually withdrew to be replaced by the Enron collapse and the mundane day to day events that were so common pre 911, a sense of comfort started to seep back into our lives

Nice writing...you nailed the problem right here. Immediately after 911, and then the Anthrax scares, people would've accepted (indeed expected) some real quick action...close the borders...remove illegals...close shop to check industries, transportation, set up emergency procedures.

Whoever ordered the planes grounded could've well have saved us from total chaos. The stock market being closed for a week didn't do the damage that the erosion by events since then. The "spend, spend, spend" mentality is going to have a lot of people paying off debt now.

Dramatic events require dramatic action. What we've seen is a lot of incremental stuff with people just vying for political advantage. And other events overtaking the terrorist threat. It isn't good.

I think it has more to do with people seeing the lying and scamming re: the Patriot Act, TIPS, Homeland Security, Airport Security. They know this president is attempting to smoke and mirror a far too intelligent and sophisticated citizenry into believing something constructive is really being done, when it isn't, and won't be.

If this Presidents only answer to 9-11 is to attack the Bill of Rights and Civil Liberties, his popularity will tank and is tanking. He certianly did himself no favor in plainly displaying the exclusivity of his "conservative compassion" which reacts with horror at the thought that a terrorist might not attain a visa, or an illegal alien might not be able to get a drivers license or bank account, and stops cold at 80 year old caucasion grand mothers being strip searched at Airports. His displeasure at Israel's "heavy handedness" for doing in the Gaza Strip what we have done in Afghanistan and better do in Iraq if we want our troops brought home alive.

Who can blame a rational population for looking at this situation, open borders, planes landing every day from terrorist nations, visa's being issued to people from terrorist nations, the INS being protected from destruction, "no plans on the desk for a war with Iraq", 245i, for believing that the real war is not against terrorists, but against Americans and their freedom. I think most people feel if the only thing that comes from this "War of Terror" is the curtailing of civil liberties, the demand that for the sake of "racial profiling" that all of us become terrorist suspects, the forming of agencies with great potential for great abuse, then forget about it, we will pass thank you.