When people defend the Patriot Act, the warrant-less wiretaps, and the other infringements on American civil liberties, they often point out that we are in a time of crisis and these sorts of things are necessary during a crisis.
What is a crisis? In medical terms, it would be described by the term acute and mean something that was immediate and short lived. If a problem is a long term medical problem, it is called chronic.
I think, that six years after 9/11 we are no longer experiencing an acute problem. We have fully moved into the realm of chronic. A chronic problem requires management. A chronic problem does not serve as an appropriate excuse for the continued infringement on civil liberties.