Where is Terrorism?

Under the Bush administration, terrorism has become the center of American foreign policy. There has been active, aggressive American military and political involvement in the Middle East ever since George W. Bush declared the "War on Terrorism". America has established itself as the keeper of peace in the world, but should the United States continue to assert its dominance over conflicts in the Middle East? How much influence does terrorism has on the United States, that it should put its own country at risk by making enemies in the Middle East?

While our military is stationed far away in the Middle East, the main reason why there had not been a successful, notable terrorist attack on the United States is because that America employs a layered set of defenses in addition to military interference. According to New America's analysis on the threat of terrorism in the United States, 48% of jihadists are currently monitored by a direct informant, 24% are implicated by a tip from family members or the community, and 9% are implicated by a tip from the general public. This minimizes the possibility of organized terrorism under a network of terrorists. Individual jihadists may still be able to pose a deadly threat, but any individual in America may be able to pose a deadly threat. A high school shooter and a lone jihadist poses the same kind of threat, however, and the only real way of preventing these individual threats relies on internal security rather than global subjugation on terrorism.