This is exactly what Osama bin Laden wanted. The goal of terrorism is to push a country towards a police state. Subjected to increased police powers, people w

This is exactly what Osama bin Laden wanted. The goal of terrorism is to push a country towards a police state. Subjected to increased police powers, people will blame the government, and will rise up against that government. So terrorism is an indirect attempt to destabilize a country. I think that was a big part of why the 9/11 attacks were carried out. Of course, it didn't work. In the USA, George Bush got re-elected, and citizens aren't doing much more than grumbling about abuses of power by the police forces. Of the chain of causation that Qaeda was hoping to trigger, only the first one took place: enormously increased policing. No major government change has followed.