A lot more than buildings of mortar and steel were shaken up by the events of this past Tuesday, America experienced a shaking that reached into it's very roots. The assumption that "it can't happen here" has been jolted out of us. The belief that even when a terrorist attack succeeds, its damage will be limited and isolated has been demolished. "Airport security" has become an oxymoron. Confidence in our intelligence services and national defenses has fallen. And any lingering notion that being on the side of fairness and freedom and justice for all was any kind of insulation against massive tragedy is now banished forever, gone are the days when all we had to fear was fear itself.

Michael Elliot, writing for Times, was not exaggerating when he wrote, "For Americans, September 11, 2001, …