The "patient justice" promised after 9/11 caught up with Osama bin Laden
and splintered al-Qaida, but losses mount as war grinds on in Afghanistan
Ten years after 9/11, the war on terror has melded into the ordinary backdrop of American life, the security lines and pat-downs, the casualty reports trickling in from Afghanistan, the news that a drone has struck somewhere and another leading terrorist, one whose name you've never heard, is dead.
And yes, there has been justice. Osama bin Laden finally got what was coming to him, shot dead by American special forces in his hideout-in-plain-sight in Pakistan. And virtually everybody else who had anything to do with 9/11 is dead or imprisoned. The buzzing drones have taken out one al-Qaida leader after another; the latest, Atiyah Abd al-Rahmna, the Libyan chief of operations killed in late August.
Still, the war on terror goes on here, there and everywhere. It's flaring in Afghanistan and Pakistan, throwing sparks in Yemen and Somalia and simmering in Iraq, where the United States just celebrated a telling "record" -- the first month in a long while without the death of a U.S. soldier.
It's been a decade of such events, large and small. As the 9/11 anniversary nears, it's a moment to take stock: After two wars, trillions of tax dollars and, most priceless, thousands of young American lives, are we winning the war on terror?
If the only measuring stick is the relative safety of Americans on their own soil, the answer is yes. Through good anti-terror work and good luck, the United States has not suffered a major terrorist attack at home since 9/11. Attempts to blow up aircraft over Detroit and Chicago were disrupted or bungled. Of course, it's never over; when the U.S. commandos took bin Laden, they also found signs of preparations for a 9/11 anniversary attack.
It's hard now to even remember the first heady days of the war on terror, first the brief and thrilling push to oust the Taliban, the air power, Northern Alliance allies and the CIA agents on horseback, galloping across the country, followed by the "shock and awe" invasion of Iraq. But all that soon gave way to bloody, grinding fights with insurgents, and enormously costly years-long occupations. The United States is preparing to leave Iraq; it should get out of Afghanistan, too.
In a speech before a hushed joint session of Congress a few days after the 9/11 attacks, President Bush promised "patient justice" for those responsible. History will record that Americans were a most patient people over the decade that followed.
Look at all we have seen and done: those two years-long wars, the loss of all those young soldiers, airmen, sailors and Marines, the fears that led to wire-tapping and other threats to civil liberties, the abuse at Abu Ghraib, special "renditions" and waterboarding.
The most painful thing in considering the 9/11 anniversary is that even after all that, you can't see the end of the war on terror. It's like Afghanistan, a war that can be fought, managed or directed, but never "won." A decade after 9/11, Americans have learned that they have no choice but to understand the threats, accept the danger and live with the war on terror.
In his speech to Congress after the attacks, Bush said, "It is my hope that in the months and years ahead, life will return almost to normal."
You might say it almost has, at least for the American families that do not have loved ones in harm's way around the world. But the thing is, 10 years into the war on terror, it's hard to remember exactly what that former life was like.