All Terrorism Is Local?

The government's loudly trumpeted "War on Terror" is not the solution to the problem. It has become the problem. The War on Terror does not reduce public anxieties by thwarting terrorists poised to strike. Rather, in myriad ways, conducting the antiterror effort as a "war" fuels those anxieties. By stoking these public fears, and attracting vast political and economic resources in response to them, the War on Terror encourages, indeed virtually compels, every interest group in the country to advance its agenda as crucial for winning the war. As a result, widening circles of Americans are drawn into a spiraling maelstrom of fear, waste, exaggeration, and opportunity for profit.