Whatever the explanation, it almost certainly doesn't mean that bin Laden and his fellow Muslim terrorists have forgotten about us, or decided that we are too dangerous to attack on our own soil. At best, they have simply decided to pick off easier targets first -- including American targets abroad. In due course, when they have infiltrated or recruited a sufficient number of agents here, and above all when they have acquired a few nuclear weapons from friendly nations, they will stage an attack on the American homeland that will make Sept. 11 look like a garden party.
That, to be sure, will have the disagreeable side effect of awaking the American public (or what's left of it) again. We may even reinstitute some of the "unconstitutional" surveillance procedures that the ACLU is today so busy urging the courts to abolish. Or we may simply be remembered historically as the freest nation ever destroyed by indifference to its own danger.
But, one way or another, at a time of their choice, we will hear from the Muslim fanatics again.