22 - United States responses to September 11

Summary

The violent destruction of life and property incident to war, the continual effort and alarm attendant on a state of continual danger, will compel nations the most attached to liberty to resort for repose and security to institutions which have a tendency to destroy their civil and political rights. To be more safe, they at length become willing to run the risk of being less free.

The September 11 attacks profoundly affected the United States. Apart from the destruction of so many lives and the damage done to two of our most symbolically important buildings, the visual images of the attacks inflicted a level of trauma unknown to many Americans. The collective sense of fear and dread created by September 11, along with an understandable and palpable collective determination to rise up and ‘do something’ about terrorism, precipitated changes in laws and policies designed to counter the terrorist threat.

Acknowledging the risks of making judgments about the longer term from a perspective of three years from the event, the law and policy changes that are still being made by the United States may be part of what many inside and outside government now refer to as the ‘new normal’. In short, a longer term permanent realignment of the relative importance of security among our government's objectives may be taking place, perhaps at the expense of a thoughtful examination of terrorism and its antidotes.