Poll: Only 31% Think Al Qaeda Weaker Than on 9/11

As President Obama makes the case for supporting the al Qaeda backed rebels in Syria, maintains quasi-support for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, pushes Israel to release more Palestinian terrorists, and negotiates with the Taliban in Afghanistan, a new poll reveals that the American people do not believe that al Qaeda has been weakened. Just 31 percent of adults think al Qaeda is weaker than it was on September 11, 2001; a full 29 percent of adults think al Qaeda is now stronger, and another 29 percent think al Qaeda is of similar strength.

Given last September 11’s events in Benghazi, the closing of American embassies around the globe in August, and President Obama’s muscular case for strengthening NSA surveillance of the American people thanks to terror, the American people have every reason to believe that al Qaeda is in strong shape. Only 39 percent of likely voters think the United States is now safer than it was on September 11, with 36 percent disagreeing, according to a July Rasmussen poll.

Ben Shapiro is Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the New York Times bestseller “Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America” (Threshold Editions, January 8, 2013).