It seems clear to me that if all the money we spent on fighting terrorism since 9/11 were instead spent on, say, reducing traffic fatalities, it would have saved a lot more people.
"The US spends more than $500 million per victim on anti-terrorism efforts. However, cancer research spending is only $10,000 per victim."
http://thinkbynumbers.org/government-spending/anti-terrorism...
That's basic risk analysis
320,000 people dead due to traffic fatalities over 10 years.
vs
It's:
320,000 people dead due to traffic fatalities over 10 years causing little political fallout.
vs
Bluntly, to shift the risk argument we'd either need to take politicans out of the decision making and give it to some independent fact-based body, or get the media and people in general far more riled up about car crashes.