Are We In A Sept. 10 State Of Mind?

This is a subject discussed by Daniel Pipes in his latest article. He wrote that he'd feared this after 9/11, despite the great show of commitment:

"Are Americans truly ready to sacrifice liberties and lives to prosecute seriously the war against militant Islam? I worry about US constancy and purpose."

How right he was for many reasons.

* The USA Patriot Act, a landmark of post-September 11 cooperation between the military and law enforcement, passed in the Senate 98-1 in October 2001. Last week, the same bill stalled in the Senate.

* The mainstream press does not take Islamist aspirations seriously and sees the war on terror basically as over, as shown by Maureen Dowd's comment in the New York Times that the Bush administration is trying "to frighten people with talk of Al Qaeda's dream of a new Islamic caliphate."

* Harvard and Georgetown universities each accepted $20 million for Islamic studies from a Saudi prince who overtly promotes his government's Wahhabi outlook, Alwaleed bin Talal.

* A Florida jury somehow managed to overlook the massive evidence of Sami Al-Arian's leading role in Palestinian Islamic Jihad and acquitted him on this charge.

* One leading Islamist organization, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, boasts an endorsement from Wells Fargo Bank, an invitation from Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and a letter of congratulations from the president's brother, Jeb Bush. Another, the Muslim Public Affairs Council, hosted representatives of the departments of Justice and State at a conference last week.

He also goes on to list American foreign policy as well as international setbacks, which I'm sure many of us could list ourselves. He then said that others who also worry include Rudy Giuliani and Steven Emerson. And like us, he worries that even another attack here in the US wouldn't be enough to put us back on the track we need to be on if we want life as we know it to continue. It's scary how many people just don't get it.