Do you think there is going to be a terrorism attack on the anniversary of 9/11?

Simply No, american sercuity has changed immensely since the 9/11 attack. They don’t call it the day that changed the world for nothing. America has responded well to most terroist threats since 9/11.

Probably not. The “trick” in terrorism is that they do something totally unexpected in order to scare everyone. On the anniversary, everyone thinks about the 9/11 attacks and everyone is wary and alert.

I say if they attack again, then it will be a completely different, unsuspected place and date.

Yet, I think that we should not be scared. Because that is what they want. In the last 10 years, some 10.000 people worldwide have died of terrorist attacks. Compared to the number of people who died of car crashes, cancer, heart attacks and natural catastrophes this number is insignificant. I think we should not be more scared of the terrorists than of drunk drivers. Because if we are, they get exactly what they want.

Well said rotten. If we cave into to fear, the terrorist win. We have done way too much of that already with over the top airport security.

Humans are lousy of estimating risk. We ignore large risks we face every day like driving and scrutinize trivial risks. Anyway, the 2001 terrorists were wildly successful. They tanked our economy, convinced us to suspend most of our Bill of Rights, reelect the most incompetent president in modern history, got us to attack their enemy Iraq, and helped drum up Arab Al Qaeda support and a new wave of terrorism recruits. Agreed that not responding at all to 9/11 would have been far more effective than the way we did. Anyway, Al Qaeda no longer has the resources for a large scale attack like in 2001. Intelligence indicated that the plan was for a small attack to commemorate the anniversary. It does not take a lot of time or resources to do something like this. Terrorists do have a thing for anniversaries. Remember that Timothy McVeigh blew up the Murrah building in Oklahoma City on the 2nd adversary of the Ruby Ridge incident. A small but well timed attack would have a lot of propaganda value for Al Qaeda.

If there hasn’t been one in the past 10 years, why start now?

And it won’t be with guns or bombs. It’ll be technoligical. Itll be political. Its going to take a smarter America to stay defensive and competitve.

Nobody can protect us against all risks. Moreover, I wouldn’t want to live in a society restrictive enough to prevent every threat. One of the things I admired about the student body at Virginia Tech is that after the terrible shooting that left 32 students dead and 25 wounded they did not want to lock down the campus after the shooting. They didn’t want to fence in the university and install metal detectors in all the buildings. They wanted to keep a free and open campus even knowing that there would always be the possibility of another nut with a gun attacking students. Compare that to the reaction after 9/11 when Americans lived in fear and gave up many of the liberties that are part of what makes America great. Virginia Tech students didn’t let a terrorist change them but America did. Benjamin Franklin famously said, “They that give up essential liberties to purchase temporary safety deserve neither.”