This argument has been tossed around quite a bit since 9/11, but I don't think anyone's ever taken the time to refute it. Terror isn't the goal of the terrorists, it's the means to achieve their goal. There's nothing wrong with being afraid. There's nothing wrong about changing our habits. The terrorists are trying to kill us and destroy our country, they're not trying to keep small planes trailing signs from flying over stadiums or have us focus terror investigations on Arabs. Changing our lives to take sensible security precautions hurts the terrorists' cause.

Some argue why should we be told to be prepared now when during WWII the people were being encouraged to go about their normal lives. Quite simply, there were plenty of things around in WWII to remind people they were at war. This is a very different war. There are no air raid sirens. No rationing. No constant bombing. This is a war that can quite easily slip away from the public's conscious mind. When people had constant reminders of the terror they didn't need to be reminded to be vigilant. When the biggest inconvenience is the price of gas going up to $1.75 a gallon it's a different story. People need to be reminded every once in a while that they're practically on the front lines of a war. Of course people should be free to go shopping, or go to a ballgame, but it's simply not too much to ask that we change our lives in little ways. These changes hurt the terrorists, they don't lead to the terrorists' victory.