I didn't say they feared for their personal safety. What I was saying is that they must be in fear of being seen as useless, by Wall Street for instance. I've met a few myself. The "War on Terror" seems like it would help maintain the illusion that the party might indeed be allowed to go on forever. Anything else runs too big a risk of the wrong people noticing the handwriting on the wall. Sure they will withdraw to their bunkers, but not until they absolutely have to. The key question is, will they ever come out again?