Sleepwalking On Ice

From From USA Today:

On one hand, we have been lulled by the fact that there hasn't been an attack here since 2001,' says Stephen Wayne, a political scientist at Georgetown University. 'But on the other, we're generally in a funk about a lot of things — the economy and the war — and these numbers reflect it.

Panic fatigue has taken over America. Fewer people are afraid of a terrorist attack, but fewer have confidence in the Bush administration's ability to protect us from the threat. "It probably won't happen, and besides, they couldn't prevent it anyway." is our national attitude, I suppose.

Lord help me, we are a country of silly boobs.

Eight years passed between the bombing in 1993 and the attacks on 9/11. And Islamic fascists have a memory so long it goes back to the crusades and the freaking caliphate. And if the weenie liberals are right (and they could be on this one) there are even more people out to get us than before because we're in Iraq and acting all tough and preemptively. Even the neocons acknowledge this is a likely side effect, although they claim it is temporary.

I will begin to breathe easier once eight years have passed since 9/11. I expect terrorists can see the plain evidence that habitual complacency is our primary weakness.

Today at work some low-level FBI agent was reviewing transcripts of intelligence data, trying to connect the dots on a possible planned attack - it's a much less glamorous job than Jack Bauer on Fox's 24. If this agent makes an incorrect assumption America will overreact and look foolish. But if he or she ignores one suggestive detail there could be thousands of us dead.