Americans deeply cherish their constitution and especially the rights granted to them in the Declaration of Independence. It is the purpose of this paper to establish that perhaps one of the biggest effects of the terrorist attacks of September 11 has been the loss of certain, previously taken-for-granted unalienable rights such as the
right to life, liberty, and happiness. Therefore, it can be argued that the terrorist attacks were, at least partially successful, in so much that they succeeded in damaging the very foundation of democracy and the American way
The September 11 attacks resulted in the deaths of more than 5,000 people and injured tens of hundreds more (O'Brien, 2001). While the sheer numbers of lives lost was devastating enough, the terrorist attacks caused
more than just the physical loss of life. They changed, perhaps forever, the right of every citizen to feel psychologically secure and protected in their own country by virtue of the fact that the form and scale of the
attack was unprecedented. Airplanes used as weapons, terrorists willing to die for their cause, the threat of biological warfare have all served to create a feeling of vulnerability in American society. Consequently, the
immediate reaction to even a rumored threat is panic and overreaction. For example, "the fear of anthrax is much greater than concern about influenza, although the latter will kill thousands of times more Americans than the
former and the chance of a massive anthrax attack is slight; people cancel flights to drive, at a greatly increased chance of dying." (Jervis, 2002). Thus, it is evident that September 11 resulted in not just death, but also
the loss of a peaceful and secure way of life for the living.
Another effect of the terrorist attacks was the loss of liberty. One of the main attributes of liberty is the granting of basic human and civil rights such as the right to dignity, privacy and the right to be deemed in...