[parasubvert]

The lesson of suicide terrorists seems to be that dying certainly doesn't win a fight, but it provokes behavioural changes in your foe. Changes lead to mistakes.

In that sense, dying works - if the target is so fragile it will self-destruct. The USA in total isn't fragile - but the aspects of the USA people loved (liberty, freedom from unfair search & seizure, freedom from torture, large but power-limited government) seems to have been very fragile.