Mark M. Lowenthal is president of the Intelligence & Security Academy in Reston, Virginia. From 2002 to 2005, he was the assistant director of Central Intelligence for Analysis and Production at the Central Intelligence Agency.
THE SHORT AND EMPHATIC answer to the question is: Yes, we are safer now. How do we know this? There are several indicators.
First, other than the Fort Hood shooting, which falls into an odd category, there has not been a successful attack on the U.S. homeland in 10 years. There have been attempted attacks, but I will discuss that later.
breaking the law. The Times Square and Detroit airplane incidents bear witness to that.
Finally, we now know from documents seized in Osama bin Laden’s compound that he saw the name of al-Qaida as tarnished and in need of change, believed he was losing the espionage war to the United States and believed the goal of creating even one Islamic nation was far off in the future. These are all signs of success.
Our success to date does not mean we should either let down our guard or declare victory. Historically, terrorist campaigns can last for decades. We also have to understand that success does not mean no further attacks or even no more successful attacks. In warfare, the enemy has a will of his own. However, we have made it increasingly difficult for terrorists to operate against their preferred targets. We have adapted—as will they. But terrorists, like any other organization, need success to survive and to grow, and we have been able to deny them much of that.
We must take the long view. The safety checks and restrictions at airports will continue. Alerts will come and go. And the war on terrorists will last a long time. There may be other sad days in our future. But we have come a long way since 9/11, and we have vastly improved our ability to deter and to defeat terrorists.
the Lawyers Alliance for World Security in Washington, D.C.
American teenager attempted to blow up a Christmas-tree lighting in Portland, Oregon.
Part of the problem is that the new security measures are often ineffective. For example, Shahzad failed because he bought the wrong explosives, not because Homeland Security stopped him. On Christmas Day 2009, Umar Abdulmutallab attempted to blow up a plane flying from Amsterdam to Detroit. He was foiled only by courageous passengers on the plane. No air marshal stopped him, and, though he was a reported terrorist, he was not added to the no-fly list. As a result, to prevent such international terrorism, body scanners were installed— domestically. They do nothing to make America safer from foreign terrorism.
The inadequacy of security measures is not the only reason America is less safe, however.
Since 9/11, according to the Congressional Research Service, more than 2,000 innocent Muslims are killed annually in Afghanistan as a result of the war. Such “collateral deaths” have also occurred in Iraq, Pakistan and other countries where America is fighting terrorism. This global war on terror, though fought with the intention of protecting our country from further terrorist attacks, is quite likely having the opposite effect.
received by August 12, 2011.