Security, job #1?

Today, while watching a town hall meeting with John McCain I was struck by his assertion that there is no job more important for a president than security. I wondered what does that really mean? Clearly there is no job more important for the president than preventing the deaths of US citizens (although ideally I would prefer it if the value of an american life equalled the value of anybody else's life) but that isn't precisely what McCain means. According to Families USA 22,000 americans between 18-64 died in 2006 because of lack of health insurance (http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2008/03/group_says_being_uninsured_lea.html). This isn't what John McCain means by security. He means that the most important job for a president is to stop americans dying in a military/terrorist attack, such as happened on 9/11. On that day around 3,000 people died, and none since. If we take the 2006 statistic as an average for each year something like 130,000 americans have died because of lack of health insurance against 3,000 from security reasons. That's 43 times as many people.
So, if the prevention of 130,000 deaths is ranked below the deaths of 3,000 people then there must be something non-rational going on. Security deaths are somehow at least 43 times as important as dying of treatable sicknesses. The only explanation I can give for this is that the security deaths are more frightening, in other words, terrorist deaths are terrifying to John McCain.
My position is that dying of sepsis, or pneumonia, etc. is every bit as terrible for the people involved as getting blown up. My position is also that the only way for terrorists to win is for people to be terrified. Terrorists simply don't have the resources to do any significant damage to the infrastructure and people of the USA. They are terrorists precisely because that's the only way they can achieve anything. It is precisely by being terrified of terrorists that you give terrorists power. This is so ridiculously obvious that I can't believe it isn't just accepted truth, I mean, terror is in the name of terrorists.
Osama bin-Laden's strategy is not hard to discover. It was to provoke the USA into an attack on a middle-east, islamic country, and then wear down the will of americans and cripple the economy. he reason this is his strategy is that it's the one that was used successfully in Afghanistan by bin-Laden against the Soviet Union, resulting in the break-up of that super-power and the installation of an islamic state. How do I know that this was bin-Laden's plan? He told us in interviews prior to 9/11 and afterwards. We have it from the horse's mouth. From the very concept that deaths from terrorism are more terrifying than other deaths, the US government has followed bin-Laden's publically stated goals. We have been provoked, have responded stupidly, and our economy is suffering deeply as a result. It is hard for me to conceive of a method of defeating terrorism more stupid than following the plan of the world's most famous terrorist.
But in general I want to get across this point. We are going to die at some point. This fact should not prevent us from living. One of the most dangerous thing you can do is drive your car. Your chances of dying in a car accident dwarf your chances of being killed by a terrorist. But I don't think we should stop driving our cars to go see movies, or friends, or to buy groceries. There are risks worth taking, and being frightened is no way to live your life, and this is true both for individuals and nations.