It's not enough to remind us that the men and women who got up and went to work in the Twin Towers, or who died in a corner of the Pentagon or in a bean field in Pennsylvania, were the heroic dead of the first battle of a genuine war against the United States. If September 11 is to become a date to live in infamy, with the lasting iconic power of December 7, we have to believe there is a strategy like that laid out by FDR. Just saying so is not enough.
Does Osama bin Laden understand, as Admiral Yamamoto did, that sneak attacks on the innocent only "awaken a sleeping giant, and make him very, very angry"? Indeed, do we understand that?
Sacrifice is always difficult. A mother who loses a son in battle, after all, feels crushing, indescribable pain whether she believes her son died in vain or as a hero of the nation. But how the public sees the protests of a grieving mother bears on how the distant army sees its duty, and it's the responsibility of the commander in chief to make sure the public sees clearly.
Hitler was surprised when the British did not give up when he blitzed London, so he set out to break the British spirit with "Coventrieren," a tactic to extend the destruction of Coventry to 20 additional cities. But instead of breaking the British spirit, "Coventrieren" strengthened it. The people of Coventry began rebuilding their houses and factories at once.
Hurricane Katrina and Cindy Sheehan must be similar tests of the spirit. The winds of the storm, like the winds of war, beat against our emotions and our will, and the American will to survive must prevail against the despairing voices that, as the poet says, will wake us only to drown.