I was thinking of FDR when I wrote that. In fact, I used the line "we have nothing to fear but fear itself" in the first draft, but decided it was bit too much the cliche.

Tom's doing a good job keeping the discussion on a higher plane, so I'll try to tread lightly into politics...I don't see FDR's kind of leadership in Bush. Instead, I see a "bring it on!" desperate bravado that seems a veneer over his own fear. It's not reassuring when our President exhibits many of the mannerisms of a cornered animal who feels it has nothing to lose.

One reasonable conclusion starting with Tom's observation about the lack of terrorist activity, and proceeding through my observation about our vulnerability because of fear, suggests that the terrorists' strategy might be wickedly clever: The lack of attacks over the long run is more debilitating to American society than a string of small attacks that would merely sting us, while at the same time conditioning us to an attitude of struggling through no matter what. We might get past the psychological shock of that first Big One 9/11, and might come to realize, as RL argues above, that individual terrorist attacks are actually pretty small in comparison to our size and power.

To put it in quantitative terms, if there'd been more attacks we'd start to develop a statistical baseline to judge the real risk of terrorism. We might find out that the odds of being hurt in an attack are smaller than the odds of dying in a traffic accident or a plane crash. But with only the one datum, we're free to engage in the most outrageous extrapolations powered by mindless fear. Many Americans seem to feel that they're at significant risk just walking down the street, and that's patently false.

America's a big country. It would take a million sleeper terrorists to inflict on us the same degree of harm we inflict on ourselves by driving, flying, eating at fast-food restaurants, smoking and drinking, engaging in "extreme" sports, and on and on.

"The terrorists win if..." has become a political catchphrase. Well, by definition terrorists win if we succumb to terror--that's what the name means and how a terrorist defines winning. It's legitimate to wonder if terrorists have already won against America. We sure act like a terrorized people.