Many fear another attack; fewer now take precautions

The memories, for many, still well up daily: The falling towers, the specter of a terrorist attack, the sense of a society at risk.

Five years after 19 men hijacked four packed planes and crashed them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania, a majority of Eastern Massachusetts residents think about the events of Sept. 11, 2001 at least once a week, and nearly one in four say the attacks come to mind every day, according to a new Boston Globe poll.

But while most poll respondents described the aftermath of 9/11 as life-changing, only one in eight said their own lives had changed in a major way. And the number who said they still take precautions against the possibility of new attacks -- limiting air travel, avoiding big public gatherings -- has sharply declined.

The results suggest a region whose population is simultaneously fearful of another terrorist attack, but uncertain what to do about it, or how to assess efforts made to date by government agencies. A significant majority -- 64 percent -- said the conflict in Iraq, defended by the Bush administration as vital to the war on terror, has actually increased the risk of another terrorist strike against the United States, and most said they expect one.

``I think about it every day -- how can you not? Either somebody brings it up . . . or you watch any news program, and what do you see? Terrorism," said Charles Syracuse, 54, of Cambridge, one of those polled. ``But I haven't made any changes. Realistically, what can you change?"

Many people who, in the aftermath of 9/11, adopted self-protective measures have now returned to their normal practices. A whopping 84 percent of respondents said they do not adjust their behavior when the federal government increases the threat level, 78 percent do not stock up on emergency food or water to prepare for a terrorist attack, and 67 percent said they do not know what they are supposed to do or where they are supposed to go in the event of a local evacuation.

But the lack of preparation for an attack does not reflect an accompanying sense of security. Three in five respondents said they believe it is very likely there will be further acts of terrorism in the United States over the next several years, and another one-third said it is somewhat likely; only 6 percent said they view further acts of terrorism as unlikely. Just over half believe the risk of a terrorist attack is higher now than it was five years ago, when the government launched its war on terror, and nearly half said they now feel less safe than they did before 9/11.

``When we travel, we're a lot more aware of where we're sitting, who's getting on the plane, and everybody's checking everybody out," said Tamara Anthony, a 55-year-old retired teacher from Shrewsbury, in a follow-up interview after the poll. ``I have a son in the Navy, and I think about him and what he's been doing. My other son traveled to Manchester [England] the day after the [alleged] bombing [plot], so I was a little nervous. And my husband works in Boston, so you think about that. It's a part of our daily life now."

The telephone poll was conducted in the weeks just prior to the fifth anniversary of the terror attacks, from Aug. 29 through Sept. 3, with 521 adults living in eastern and central Massachusetts.

The poll, conducted for the Globe by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 4.3 percentage points.

Only a minority of respondents said they have made behavioral changes, such as avoiding air travel, large public events, or mass transit, in the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11, and in each case the number of people who maintained such precautions dropped over the five-year period.

``The thing that jumps out at me is how much life has returned to normal after the events of Sept. 11," said Andrew E. Smith, director of the UNH survey center. ``The data point out that, while we changed our behaviors immediately after 9/11, we've tended to go back to the way things were before."

Respondents indicated a strong willingness to support the government's effort to combat terrorism, with a significant majority saying the government should fully investigate terrorist threats even if that means intruding on personal privacy.

But the respondents gave mixed to negative marks to the government for its prosecution of the war on terror. Forty-three percent said the federal government is doing a good or excellent job defending Americans at home from future terrorist attacks, another third rated the government's performance as only fair, and nearly one quarter rated it as poor.

A majority -- 57 percent -- said the US government has not done enough to capture the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, Osama bin Laden.

``I think we have a short-term memory, and really the complacency is a concern to me," Todd Peters, a 44-year-old marketing executive, said.

Peters, who lives in a MetroWest suburb but asked that his hometown not be identified, said his best friend was killed in the World Trade Center, and that as a result he thinks about the attacks daily.

``I think there will be another strike, and that does cause me a fair bit of anxiety, because I know the emotional pain that's going to be inflicted," he said. ``We need to do more. We've done a fair amount, but it's been insufficient."

Although respondents said they believe the war in Iraq has increased the risk of terrorism, they were divided over what to do now: 24 percent said the troops should withdraw fully now, 31 percent said the United States should set a date for troop withdrawal, and 37 percent said the United States should keep its troops in Iraq until the country is stabilized.

The poll also found no consensus over the readiness of the Boston area to respond to a terrorist attack. About one-quarter said they believe Boston is now more vulnerable to an attack than it was five years ago, but 61 percent said the area's vulnerability has not changed. Asked to assess the ability of Boston-area officials to respond to an attack, 49 percent said they were somewhat confident, 13 percent said they were very confident, and 36 percent said they were not too confident or not confident at all.

Respondents did not appear to closely associate Islam with terrorism. Nearly half said they believe that Islam is a religion of peace, while just over one-quarter of respondents said Islam fosters terrorism.

More than one-third of respondents said airport security should focus on men of Middle Eastern origin, but more than half said they think race and ethnicity should not be considered when deciding which airline passengers to screen.

Michael Paulson can be reached at mpaulson@globe.com.