In fact, it occurred to me later that from the perspective of being inside the event, perhaps a better comparison might be made between the attacks on the Twin Towers and the our dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, including to some extent the public condemnation of the attacks - not everybody in the world thought dropping atomic bombs was such a great idea, even if it did end the war in the Pacific.

Except that I note with interest that when I see coverage of memorial services held in Japan to commemorate those losses, I don't ever get the same sense of tacky, cheap politicism, but rather of solemn remembrance.

Clearly they made the transition that we have not; they were able to put their mourning and rage behind them, and move forward. I wish I knew how this country could do that. I suspect that having the Shrubbery out of power would be a help, since he seems to be incapable of talking about anything but 9/11 and terrorism.