This week's big political fight proved that Washington's establishment is still infinitely capable of taking its eye off the ball.
When the jet that hit the second Trade Tower on September 11, the pilot deliberately banked the craft at the last moment, so he could bathe as many Americans as possible in a sheet of flame.
Well, we know Al Qaeda wants an encore. It wants more death. And these things remind us, again, that evil exists and that we'll have to defeat it, not by copying the bin Laden brigades, but by filling our daily activities defiantly with light and life and love. That's the vision of America's founders, and we shouldn't mess it up.
It's a different story on the battlefield, of course. There we must win through overwhelming force, and we'll need a functional intelligence system to pull it off.
But here in Washington, we need to step back again. Remember the priorities: faith, family, friends. As for partisan idiocies, save that for another time. We need to stand fast and stand together.
After all, we have met the enemy, and it is not us.
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