I’ve received lots of mail in response to my claim that there have been no terrorist attacks in the United States since 9/11/01. There have been attacks, many readers say. Most point to the mailing of anthrax letters in late 2001, and others point to the one-man attack at the El Al counter at the L.A. Airport in July 2002.
It seems to me that this mostly boils down to a definition of “terrorism,” and I don’t feel I have much at stake in that debate (nor interest in jumping into it, at least right now). I do think it’s worth pointing out that no one knows who sent the anthrax letters, or why. Without knowing that, I don’t know how we can classify it very well. But for those who want to take a broad definition of terrorism, feel free to read my earlier post as saying something more like this:
WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT on September 12, 2001, that between then and the November 2, 2004 Presidential election there would be no substantial increase in the number and severity of terrorist attacks in the United States compared to what we usually have? You never know what’s around the corner, of course, but the big surprise of the last three years has been the dog that didn’t bark louder than it normally does.
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