Will terrorism be a big issue in 2008? 2012?

[Trilobyte]

Do you think terrorism will go back to being a low-profile issue like in 2000? Or has it become a permanent "big" issue, along with taxes, healthcare, etc.?

[specific_name]

Terrorism will be an issue into the next decade for sure. Eventually it will lose importance to the general public, as time goes by no one will pay attention to terror warnings. My guess is, when we stop expecting it there will be an attack.

[Gabu]

Terrorism will be a big issue for as long as people are scared of terrorism.  If people cease to be scared of it by 2008, it will cease to be a big issue in 2008.  If people continue to be scared of it in 2040, it will continue to be a big issue in 2040.

[The Duke]

Its like the Cold War, and until we can say that Islamism is as dead as Soviet Communism, it will be there to deal with.

[KEmperor]

Its like the Cold War, and until we can say that Islamism is as dead as Soviet Communism, it will be there to deal with.

Yes, I agree.

[Polkergeist]

It depends what you define as Islamism. Can you have Islam without Islamism?

Islamic terrorism will die when liberal democracy takes hold in the middle east. With the resulting prosperity will change the focus of the society away from fundamentalism. The Islamic religion will remain but the crazies will be impotent against freedom on their own patch.

But when will this happen ? Who knows ?

If Iraq becomes a stable liberal democracy that will help but it's no guarantee of a domino effect in region

[Gabu]

I don't think Islam in general needs to be dead.  It's just militant Islam: Wahhabism et al.  Muslims can peacefully cohabitate with non-Muslims; in fact, they have for years.  There are Muslims in Western countries that are certainly not terrorists.  The majority of Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan are not terrorists, either.

The only problem is that Wahhabism and sects like it get the most media coverage and terroristic adherents are usually simply referred to as "Islamic terrorists", giving the impression that they represent all of Islam.

[swarch]

It will remain an important issue until it is resolved.

Sadly, the most compelling scenario that I've read about for its resolution is that, one morning, we will wake up to learn that a radioactive hole has replaced Washington, D.C. There has been a lot of speculation that terrorists already have, or will eventually acquire or build, suitcase nukes.

After a suitable period of national mourning, the federal government will be reconstituted in Butthole, Wyoming. It will resume its imprudent and impudent ways, meddling in the affairs of other nations and swatting any hornet's nests that offend it.

Butthole will soon suffer the same fate as Washington, D.C.  A governors' conclave will then decide that they can live without a reckless and bossy federal government. The nation will return to the original Articles of Confederation, under which the States were independent and a federal government (established by the Constitution more than a decade after 1776) did not exist.

[opebo]

Of course it will.  

I'm reminded of looking over an Indian student's shoulder at the university computer center soon after 9/11.  She was looking at a photo one of her countrymen had sent her - a montage of the Haj with two 747's about to crash into it.  She turned around to see me smiling, and quickly closed the window.  

This war won't be over till one side is finished.

[Posterity]

swarch, you are just too optimistic!  


Yes, I think terrorism will be a big issue in the 2008 election, and probably 2012 too.

[Fmr. Gov. NickG]

Well, it shouldn't be, barring a bunch of major attacks in the meantime.    It really shouldn't be in this election either...we haven't had an attack in three years, and both Bush and Kerry have basically the same policy.  Unfortunately, fearmongering has given the issue for more salience than it deserves.