Sen. Grassley warns against complacency about terror threat

Sen. Chuck Grassley isn't surprised by a poll showing waning confidence that America is winning the War on Terror, but cautioned against such complacency.

Rasmussen Reports reported Wednesday that belief the United States is winning the War on Terror has dropped 20 percentage points from last year to its lowest level in over 10 years of regular tracking, according to Rasmussen Reports.

Its telephone survey of likely voters found that just 27 percent believe America and its allies are winning the war on terrorism. That's down from 47 percent last year and a high of 62 percent in 2009 just after the inauguration of President Barack Obama.

The poll coincides with a 10th anniversary report from the original authors of the National Commission on Terrorist Attack, which investigated the Sept. 1, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington. It concluded that although the threat level has not waned, Americans no longer take it seriously.

The report marking the 10th anniversary of the commission's original report identifying intelligence failures leading up to the 2001 terrorist attacks concluded the U.S. faces a growing array of threats.

'That's bad news,” said Grassley, who told reporters Wednesday he was planning to post a series of comments about the report on the social media network Twitter. 'The public doesn't appreciate the dangers and is complacent.”

Former congressman and commission Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton reached the same conclusion when the report was released last week.

'The country may be suffering from a waning sense of urgency,” he said.

The terror commission warned of threats from new terrorist havens and cyber attacks, Grassley said. It also suggested its fears of Iraq becoming a failed state - 'a nightmare scenario” -- may be coming to pass.

'I urge all Americans to take the warning of the 10th anniversary of the terrorist commission report to heart,” Grassley said.

Rasmussen also found:

'36 percent think the terrorists are winning that war and 29 percent say neither side is winning.

'39 percent consider terrorist attacks a bigger threat than economic or military attacks and 51 percent still view economic attacks as the bigger threat. Only 3 percent regard military attacks from other nations as the bigger threat to this country.

'59 percent believe there is a global conflict between the Muslim world and Western civilization.

'By 44-21 percent, Americans think the U.S. is too involved in the Middle East.

'Only 13 percent think the U.S. should be the world's policeman.