On the lookout for the enemy
All my life I have worried about my “enemies”. My enemy is defined by the dictionary as someone who is actively opposed if not hostile to everything I do and stands in the way of my achieving success and happiness.
A Fox News Poll conducted before the recent events in Afghanistan found that two-thirds (64 per cent) of the registered voters in the US think that the 9/11 terror attacks 20 years back permanently changed the way of life in the US.
A quarter of the respondents said the attacks caused temporary changes (24 per cent), while only 9 per cent felt that life didn’t change at all.
The poll was conducted from August 7-10, days before the US troops pullout from Afghanistan became front-page news.
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As per the poll, the voters saw the 9/11 attacks as more consequential than the Coronavirus pandemic, with half (50 per cent) saying in an earlier poll that the pandemic has made permanent changes to life in the US.
A majority (65 per cent) believed that the policies implemented in the aftermath of the attacks made America ‘safer’ (65 per cent), 17 per cent felt that they made the US ‘less safe’, while 13 per cent thought the policies didn’t make any difference.
Nearly twice as many, though still a minority, said that the interrogation techniques like waterboarding (38 per cent) and the military action against Iraq (31 per cent) were an overreaction.
In early August, one-quarter (25 per cent) said the US taking military action against Afghanistan after 9/11 was an overreaction, while half (49 per cent) thought it was ‘about right’, down from 56 per cent in 2011 at the 10-year mark of the deadly attacks.
When the voters were asked about their level of concern on several issues, attacks from Islamic terrorists came in last — albeit this was before the events in Afghanistan,
As per the poll, 58 per cent were ‘extremely’ or ‘very’ concerned about the attacks, while issues such as inflation (86 per cent), political divisions (83 per cent), violent crime (81 per cent), healthcare (78 per cent), China’s growing power (73 per cent), unemployment (71 per cent), the federal deficit (70 per cent), Coronavirus (69 per cent), opioid addiction (69 per cent), illegal immigration (66 per cent), and racism (66 per cent) were cited as greater concerns.
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