They won. The terrorists, that is. Their goal was to shake up our lives, bring fear into our homes, and change the Democratic way of life in America. Oh, how very soundly they have won. Tommy Franks spells it out quite solidly, contradicting himself along the way:

Franks: GI Deaths Is the Cost of Security

MILWAUKEE - Those who count the increasing number of American soldiers killed in
Iraq are missing the bigger picture, retired Gen. Tommy Franks said Saturday night.

"What we're talking about is neither 2,400, 24,000 or 240,000 lives," Franks said at the National Rifle Association's annual banquet. "Terrorism is a thing that threatens our way of life. It doesn't have anything to do with politics."

More than 2,400 soldiers have died since the beginning of the invasion of Iraq, the plan for which Franks developed and executed. He also oversaw combat in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

"I watched as America changed," Franks said. "That's not near done. We have to secure ourselves. We have to secure our Constitution."


Has your life changed since 9/11? Is it for the better or for the worse? I knew the instant they increased security at the airports that the terrorists won. Punishing millions to find and destroy a handful of bad guys simply isn't the American way. I mourned the loss of our brief but poignant unity just after 9/11, as soon as politics started using it to divide and scare. I shouted at my Representatives and Senators and begged them not to take us to war - not yet - where's the evidence, where's the diplomacy? These are things that bad guys do. I cry when I hear of deaths in Iraq. Truth be told, I am more sad to hear of the civilian Iraqi losses than the American soldier losses; not that I blame the soldiers, nor that don't support them, but that the acceptance of civilian losses comes so easily to us now? How many is too many?

We must fight this war to secure the American way of life? The irony is so thick, it pierces into my soul.