Four years after the world watched the second jet slam into the World Trade Center on live TV, four years after seeing people just like us jumping to their deaths from hundreds of feet up in the twin towers to avoid the flames, four years after hundreds of ordinary men and women displayed extraordinary courage by rushing into those towers to battle the same flames- never to emerge, and four years after the “Arab street” danced and sang in praise of the attackers- what, exactly, has changed?

Not enough, I fear. Time heals all wounds, but it also provides a convenient hole in the sand for those who wish one. Headlines across the nation on September 12th, 2005, will repeat something akin to the following:

US marks 9/11 anniversary with march, silence.

Why silence? Has the terror and rage of that day already faded from our consciousness? Are we mute with pent up hostility, unable to find the words to express our continued anguish over those lost that day? Or are we afraid to speak up, worried that we might in some way offend some special interest group? SecDef Rumsfeld said it best today:

“I wish we could say … That this is a time for peaceful remembrance, that we were gathering today to commemorate a danger that had long since past,” Rumsfeld said. “… But we cannot. The enemy, though seriously weakened and continuously under pressure, continues to plot attacks and the danger they pose to the free world is real and present.”

(THERE IS MUCH MORE FROM THIS GREAT FOREIGN SERVICE OFFICER)