The Washington Examiner quotes Brent Scowcroft Center Nonresident Senior Fellow for Military Affairs and National Security Policy Nora Bensahel on American responses to violence since 9/11:
Because Americans now default to terrorism when something goes wrong, future attackers have lost their ability to catch people off guard, said Nora Bensahel, a distinguished scholar in residence at American University.
“It was inconceivable to most people on the morning of 9/11 that a group of 19 men could commandeer airplanes and turn them into missiles,” she said. “We as a society didn’t see ourselves as vulnerable.
“That would not be true today. If one plane went into a building today, the first thought is ‘we’re under attack.’ “