Article Highlights
- While #terrorism might not be polled as the top national concern, 9/11 left a lasting impression, making terrorism a permanent concern
- 68% of #Americans polled by #ABC and The Washington #Post say investigating threats is more important than protecting privacy
- Americans may be less patient now, but a majority strongly believe taking the #war to #Afghanistan helped the security of the US
There is no indication that Americans think government has gone too far in its response to terrorism.
American efforts to build a new intelligence and national security framework to combat terrorism after the September 11 terrorist attacks have been filled with controversy. For the past ten years, pollsters have tracked the opinions of Americans as they have wrestled with the difficult questions associated with the post-9/11 world. They have probed opinions on preemptive warfare, profiling, torture, assassination, domestic surveillance, and, of course, the war itself. We have reviewed more than a thousand of these questions for a new AEI Public Opinion Study. Below, we share our insights about the evolution of Americans’ opinions on the war and the way it has been conducted.
