>We "refuse to be terrorized" but instead we give up liberties like they are tumors that we will gladly shed to increase our perceived chances of survival.

I don't know if it is appropriate here on HackerNews, but there's this one Philosoraptor (an image meme) which just perfectly sums this up in a single sentence:

  "If terrorists hate us for our freedom, does this mean
   they're starting to like us?"

http://i.imgur.com/XbmFg.jpg