If people were rational...they would be more scared of [driving] than terrorists,
This was the pre-9/11 mindset. Don't forget. Nobody wants to bother figting the terrorists. Before they came to your shores. There is a big difference between rational strategy and having your head in the sand. Its called a lack of imagination. Until flight 93, nobody bothered...just like you suggest
But you are suggesting 9/11 is almost the only terrorist attack or activity, and you are only talking about the US. If you actually considered the rest of the world as well, you'd see that in Spain for example, people have had to deal with ETA's terrorism for a long time, yet the Spanish government hasn't terrified people with an endless discourse about war on terror, and people don't expect their freedom or privacy to be limited in the name of it.
I'm specifically talking about the "social engineering" the 9.11 hijackers used. they exploited the expectations of people to self-absorbed to think outside the box. The advice for the passengers in a hijacking was not not resist. the only difference between flight 93 and WTC was what? an hour or two and some more imagination...
But this was on multiple scales...(a) They exploited the unwillingness to hunt them down (ie, after mogadishu) so they operated with impunity to prepare; (b) They expoloited the social norms by using educated terrorists to fly first class and get "student" visas to be trained; (c) Nobody wanted to bother thinking through the consequences, because it was not so pleasant to imagine people might not be so nice...
Terrorism is at heart anti civillian warfare by definition, this is the problem and the challenge.
This was the pre-9/11 mindset. Don't forget. Nobody wants to bother figting the terrorists. Before they came to your shores. There is a big difference between rational strategy and having your head in the sand. Its called a lack of imagination. Until flight 93, nobody bothered...just like you suggest