[Jim Noble]

Beautiful graphics, thanks.

BUT

A nation that celebrates catastrophic defeats is lost. Almost every decision made by our national leaders after 9/11/01 was wrong. Our misguided policies in Iraq and (later) Afghanistan have multiplied our losses and left us weaker.

Of course, Bush's failure to seek victory in our war with Arabia and Pakistan enabled the horrible, perverse electoral consequences of 2006-8 from which we are still suffering.

Here's what I wrote on 9/13/01, by way of a prediction. Turned out pretty well, sadly enough.

Never surrender? We already did.

[Kathy in Alaska]

But we must not give up.....we must keep chipping away.

[MEG33]

We don’t “celebrate”. We honor the fallen and remember.

[Adult Dog]

2) Trivial retaliation, and continued globalization with inadequate security. I expect Bush to choose this option. By trivial, I do not mean a few cruise missiles-I expect him to fight a Vietnam war in South Asia. We will have many dead, but we will not have victory-and we will have many more committed "terrorists" after we are finished than we do now. The toll on American assets abroad and on our national territory over the next hundred years will be horrific.
Absolutely, you nailed it...