International terrorism annually causes the same number of deaths as drowning in bathtubs or bee stings. It would take a repeat of Sept. 11 every month of the year to make flying as dangerous as driving. Over a lifetime, the chance of being killed by a terrorist is about the same as being struck by a meteor.

Required reading:
http://www.govexec.com/features/0807-01/0807-01s3.htm

What makes terrorism so effective is how it plays on peoples fears. It doesn't matter how likely a terrorist strike is, just so long as the possibility of a terrorist strike can breed fear in the masses. Unfortunately, the US government has also discovered how powerful a motivator this fear can be and has turned it around on its own populace to institute laws and take actions that curb freedoms, with the average Joe on the street believing that the loss of civil rights is an equitable trade in exchange for a perceived higher degree of security.

If you are interested in this general subject, a great place to start is Bruce Schneier's blog:

http://www.schneier.com/blog/

He's one of those people who takes a subject about which you know little to nothing, and makes it fascinating.

I am not one of those people that belive sept 11 was setup by the govt, but whay
 i think for sure is that the Govts of the world really have made the best of it
.
The new security  laws in the US and UK for instance are a complete joke.More an
d more of our civil rights will disapear everytime theres another attack somewhe
re.
More and more laws will be written to "protect" us- read that as "control" us.Its very scarey to find out that the US govt had plans in place well before sept 11 and were rehearsing some of them on the actual day.They actually spent millions of dollars on a think tank proposing such terror attacks that happened on sept 11 and how then they could make good use of the fear to control the people better.People who who involved with that were Cheyney, Rumsvelt etc.Also a good read is Orwells 1984- I had to read this at school, we are in 1985 right now I think!! and its going to get a LOT worse...