frustrating is this "they kept us safe" crap. Do these people really think that Al Queida's only objective is to watch buildings fall? What are they, demolition buffs? The purpose of the attacks was to cause fear. That's why they call it "terrorism" The reason they want people terrified is because a scared populace will often make rash, panic-driven decisions. The objective has nothing to do with seeing how many buildings they can knock down. It's like saying "why didn't John Wilkes Booth go back the next day and shoot Lincoln again?" The reason was, he didn't have to. The awful deed was done. The same is true with 911. Bin Laden said he wanted to see us go bankrupt. Thanks to the panic-stricken bushco, we started a war that had nothing to do with 911 at huge cost. If not for those incredibly large expenditures, we wouldn't be in the mess we are in today. Our moral leadership in the world was lost as it came out that the panic-stricken draft-dodgers running the executive branch had scrapped the Constitution and started torturing people abroad and spying on people at home. Bin Laden has sat back and watched as his actions, coupled with the Bush/Cheney/ Neo-Con incompetence, has given him every thing he wanted; the downward spiral of our way of life and our standing in the world, a curtailing of our personal freedoms as our leaders manipulate us with fear. "We haven't been hit again" as if the enemy just intends to keep hitting buildings and killing us 3,000 people at a time, until we are all gone and they can take over the land. After the 911 attacks, some on the right blamed Clinton, even making a movie with that message, saying failed to take out Bin Laden when he had the chance. Of course, the pre-911 Bin Laden was a different animal then the one that Bushco gave a pass to. Before 911 Bin Laden had a bad reputation as the one likely behind the Cole bombing and other terror acts, but not the household name that he became in the wake of September 11, 2001. Cheney's words now are a preemptive strike designed to inoculate the former administration so that if there is another attack, the fact that THEY TOO failed to bring Bin Laden to justice can be countered with the argument that we should have continued their methods, the methods that are bringing us down to the level of our enemies.