Five Years Later

Nearly half a decade has passed since the world was irrevocably changed by 19 Islamic terrorists. Much has happened in the intervening years that could not have been forseen, and many things that were forseen during the aftermath of those dark days have not (yet) come to pass. Just after 9/11, few Americans would have believed it had they been told we would approach the five-year anniversary without suffering any further attacks from al-Qaeda.

In fact, many Americans now refuse to believe al-Qaeda ever attacked us at all. The real culprit? Why, President Bush, of course:

A Scripps-Howard poll of 1,010 adults last month found that 36% of Americans consider it "very likely" or "somewhat likely" that government officials either allowed the attacks to be carried out or carried out the attacks themselves.

Well, I guess it's safe to say that the Republicans won't be getting their votes any time soon. But think of that: Over one-third of Americans--not Egyptians, not Saudis, not Frenchmen--one-third of Americans believe the US government was complicit in the attacks that killed 3,000 Americans. The Democratic party has become the home of these Angry Left conspiracy theorists, which may garner it the praise of the most ardent of Bush-haters, but it hardly seems the best way to convince the rest of America that they can be taken seriously on national security. It is a shame, really; the Bush administration has clearly mismanaged many aspects of the war on terrorism, but five years later, the only alternative seems to be a party in which a significant portion of its base harbors conspiracy theories that would make the guy holding "The End is Near" placard on the street corner say, "Man, that's crazy."