The Counter Terrorist dilemma is the balance, that must be kept, between the measures that a democratic government can take to combat terrorism verses the freedoms that the public is unwilling to give up to allow the government to combat terrorism.  

     It is quite obvious that terrorism can be minimised, if not entirely eliminated, within a state if the government is fully determined to use all its potential powers of coercion, ranging from large secret security organisations and systems of imprisonment without trial, to persecution and torture.  But when the governmetn is unwilling or unable to its full potential, terrorism can and will be flourish as a political weapon of those that feel opressed.