I get the Washington Post, and I read the poll and thought to myself "duh", the war in Iraq wasn't even pushed as making the world safer, it was mainly to help save the poor Iraqis being oppressed (and before that it was WMD's, but we won't go there). The country is safer??? I have heard numerous reports on how people testing the system have snuck knives, razors, etc. in to planes. There was one guy who was lost rafting, came out of the water, walked a bit and was at an airport (I think it was LA, not sure) and was at the runway and had to go through no security. The Patriot Act? I thought Republicans were for less government, yet you want the government tapping the phones of innocent people? You want to imprison people without reason for an indefinate amount of time without presenting evidence or charges against them? You call this being safer?
You cannot claim that Bush, Ashcroft, the Patriot Act, or anything actually caused no terror attack, any more than I can claim that since I got a later bedtime that year, it helped protect the US. Remember, terror attacks take time. Most likely they are plotting one now, it could be anywhere, I only hope they are able to stop it.