Overreaction to terrorism is part of what makes a terrorist attack a special threat. Ironically, the wasteful measures we take to prevent damage from possible

Overreaction to terrorism is part of what makes a terrorist attack a special threat. Ironically, the wasteful measures we take to prevent damage from possible future attacks are social and economic damage caused by terrorism. Getting rid of these stupid machines and reclaiming some of our civil liberties would reduce the real damage caused by 9/11 -- a real, historical, non-hypothetical terrorist attack. It would also set a precedent for dealing sanely with terrorism in the future. The more a terrorist attack disrupts our society and undermines our values, the more money and freedom we will part with in response to one, and therefore the more it will disrupt our society and undermine our values. That's a vicious cycle we can avoid by accepting risk and not treating terrorism as a special, incomparable threat.