Eight years and counting

In short, we are reaching a critical moment of clarity. We continue practices that we say are either futile or wrong, and we demonize their architects in speech even as we ratify them through action. At some date, the Democrats and Obama may well close Guantanamo, try our own CIA interrogators, cease tribunals and renditions, ground the Predators, pull out of Afghanistan and Iraq, reach out to Iran and Syria, and distance the United States from Israel.

At that point, when liberal deeds at last match liberal rhetoric, the great 9/11 debate of the last eight years -- are we still in lethal danger from radical elements of Islam or not? -- will finally be decided by either our continued safety or another September 11.

Forty-nine percent (49%) of Americans believe that most of their fellow countrymen have already forgotten the impact of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in which 3,000 died.

And at first glance, it appears that opinion splits along party lines.  But read on. 

Republicans are more than twice as likely as Democrats to say most Americans have forgotten the impact of the events of September 11, a view shared by 52% of adults not affiliated with either political party.

Interesting.  So perhaps not so politically partisan after all.  I do, by the way, remember the impact of those events, with crystal clarity.  I intend to keep on remembering.

Here's a bit of trivia, FWIW.  On September 10, 2001, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 9,605.51.  On September 10, 2009, it closed at 9,627.48.

Faye Fiore in The LA Times:

As anniversaries go, eight years isn't much of a milestone. The traditional wedding anniversary gift for eight isn't silver or gold, it's pottery: useful and durable, but fragile nonetheless.

In the first few years, the entire country braced for an attack on every holiday, every major sports event, every anniversary.  We don't do that any more.  Security is ramped up and proper precautions are taken, but most of us don't spend the day anxiously watching the sky.  That's a good thing, I guess. 

But we shouldn't forget to thank those who are always watching for us and who have kept us safe these eight years.  We shouldn't ever forget.