[NonValueAdded]

Our enemies have made a bet -- that the West in general and the United States in particular are soft and decadent and have no attention span.

And sadly, the odds are in their favor.

[trek]

"Our enemies have made a bet -- that the West in general and the United States in particular are soft and decadent and have no attention span.

And sadly, the odds are in their favor."

I'm not so sure. At the time of the founding the fathers debated the Rattlesnake as the national symbol (see for example the First Navy Ensign). The idea to be conveyed was "slow to get into a fight, slow to get out of a fight."

Just look at WWII. The US was strongly pacifist right up to Pearl Harbor. But in the end the American people cheered the bomber crews who systematically destroyed the population centers of Germany and Japan.

Don't count the American people out. Despite 9/11 the American people still do not fear or despise the Islamic Radicals. But once they do, their vengance will no no bound.