What has been accomplished in the five-year war?

I just found an interesting article on terrorism and what actually is being accomplished in the current climate. It's something I may have iterated previously, and I feel reassured that others have come to the same conclusions as I have.

It's now five years after 9/11 and since that event our respective governments have participated in (to varying degrees) a fear campaign to help keep this subject in the forefront, perpetuated in many cases by the media. In our case in Oz, our government sent us all a fridge magnet. (The link is a joke, the fridge magnet was not!)

The newsletter I mentioned earlier, for those of you who may not have read it, suggests the goal of terrorism is to create terror in the wider society it is targeting, and the deaths of the victims are just collateral damage. If this is correct, why should we be giving the terrorists what they desire? Why should *we* change what we do in our daily lives? Why should I feel like I am doing the wrong thing if I want to take a photograph outdoors?

Surely our political leaders and their advisers can see this? Is there not a better way to handle this threat?