1)The weakness and real lack of action by the Clinton admin and previous admin after multiple attacks, Iran Embassy to WTC1 & 2, embassy bombings, Blackhawk Down, USS Cole, etc.

2)The failure of US Intelligence services to do the job, and the evidence that the Clinton DOJ/CIA was a big part of that failure! Sandy Burglar anyone???

3)Iraqi development and use of WMD were documented and all intelligence was they existed…not to mention after 9/11/01 we know that Saddam harbored and met with many terrorist as well as financing suicide murders of Israel’s!

4)The 9/11 Commission Report that was no more than a chance to CYA by the perps that failed the job. The Report that also tiptoed around the edges of information from sources like AbleDanger and the Documented Terrorist & Iraq interaction.

There are certainly still a lot of unknowns about this epic struggle we cannot lose and the Left’s inability to even acknowledge this is truly astouding…as for Thomas Friedman, the NYTs is going to regret letting him out from behind the firewall of Times SelectD. This article is mush and insulting and if he feels this way, he might want to go ahead and pack and move with his Billionairess Wife to China, or better yet to Saudi Arabia!

While the Pearl Harbor attacks did propel us headlong into WWII, I am unclear on how ti showed us that “Hitler wanted to kill us”–indeed, the evidence suggests Hitler would have been more than content to keep the war in Europe and he thought at one point that Germany and the US could be allies after the war.

Heck, for that matter, the Japanese were trying to deter us from fighting in the Pacific (so much for that plan).

Regardless, the Pearl Harbor-9/11 analogies are rather strained. Indeed, the only real thing they have in common is that they were both sneak-attacks on US soil.

I would submit that the constant need to make the current era into a true World War that is either supposed to be an analog to WII or to the Cold War is actually very much an example of how we have over-emphasized 9/11 and allowed it to, in Friedman’s inelegant term, make us stupid.

This is not to say that there aren’t serious threats, but that we need to put them in proper perspective.

Are there stupid Americans? Sure are. Has 9/11 made America stupid? I’m not convinced yet.

What was the problem he’s railing against? Sometimes it seemed to be airport security. Or maybe cell phone coverage? Or politicians that use 9/11 for advantage? Or maybe corporate competiveness? I think there was a point there, but the gripes were too widely scattered to be sure.

But I guess I should give Friedman a break. I may take a few columns to get back on track after a few years of being SELECTed for anonymity by his employer.

Speaking only personally here, I consider the 9/12 mentality to be the one that led me to choke up at the amazing sights and sounds of unity such as the “Star Spangled Banner” played by the Queen’s band at Buckingham Palace and the spontaneous pro-US demonstrations in Tehran and other world capitals and that led many Americans to dare ask the question, “Why do they hate us?”

The 9/13 mentality is the one that concerns me more. That is, the one emanating from the White House that looked at that smoldering rubble and could think only WEDGE ISSUE and WAR OPPORTUNITY; you are either with us (i.e. the GOP) or against us.

Honestly, I think there is no going back to the unity and respect. At least not in the short-medium term.