Quote Originally Posted by Dr_BuzzCzar View Post
The government and to a large extent the people of the U.S reacted to 9/11 as this and many other countries have in the past; a willingness to trade civil rights and individual freedoms for security. The time right after 9/11 was chaos, fear was rampant.
I don't like that comment. I agree with your assessment of trading civil rights and freedoms for security, and indeed, post 9/11 was chaos. But other than those people living in NYC and DC, was fear that pronounced? Oh, certainly, politicians were terrified! A plane hitting the pentagon, one apparently targetting the White House? Their own lives might be on the line! Failing to act on intelligence information? What about their careers! They were certainly afraid. Personally, while horrified by the acts and the results of those acts, I can't say that my level of fear went any higher just because of 9/11. And that despite the fear-mongering of the American (primarily) press and TV news media.

...I can't fault the decisions made in the immediacy of post-9/11 in the actual interest of public safety. Now having said that, the callous use of 9/11 to further erode individual rights, i.e. Habeas Corpus, trial by jury, Miranda, etc troubles me. The relatively recent revelation that the eaves-dropping ability has been used to entertain the technicians by listening to personal conversations of American citizens and the admission by the FBI of their agents abusing the warrentless wire-tapping laws, the revealed abuse of the Watch List on citizens who fly by putting political opponents on the list, show how quickly what appeared to be needed constrictions of constitutional rights are abused.
I'm with you on this one! "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"

That scares me.
And me as well. Far more than the threat of further terrorist actions.