ndeed, if you follow the logic of various pieces in the press over the last few days, the "nothing option" begins to seem the only reasonable alternative: We can't undertake any large-scale bombing in the Middle East because this would be counterproductive and immoral; we can't take out Saddam specifically because we supposedly already tried that once and it didn't work out; and, finally, even getting bin Laden will be difficult because of his elusiveness and the Afghani terrain.Absolutely, the left will try to sow these seeds of doubt.
We need to make sure that people think about it like Pearl Harbor. There, we were attacked by surprise, on our home territory, suffering major losses. We knew then that the fight was inevitable. We knew that the enemy aimed to conquer us. We knew that if they succeeded, our way of life would be forever changed, for the worse.
This enemy attacked by surprise, inflicting even more damage, on our home land. We know that the enemy will strike again if we do nothing, as they have before (consider our relative inaction after the Cole bombing). We know they intend to conquer us; they have openly stated their goal. We know that if they win, our way of life will be changed forever, for the worse.
I wrote about this here, if anyone is interested.
If we do our part to keep the people's memories focused, we will do just fine.