Focus

On Sept. 12, 2001, George Will wrote:

Just at the moment when American political debate had reached a nadir of frivolousness, with wrangling about nonexistent ``lock boxes'' and the like, the nation's decade-long holiday from history came to a shattering end.

What are the popular news stories these days? Lt. Smash says:

AS A NATION, we've lost focus. We're obsessed with trivial things, like the Michael Jackson trial, or the disappearance of 18-year-old tourist Natalee Holloway in Aruba. Howard Dean says Republicans are lazy and racist! Did Angelina Jolie break up Brad Pitt and Jennifer Anniston's marriage? Russel Crowe threw a telephone!

We've been here before.

Many of us would like to bury our collective head in the sand and ignore our enemies. Go back to sleep and ignore the world -- or worse, bizarrely blame ourselves for the actions of sociopathic murderers. Doing so will not deliver us from the terrorists.