THE image of a Boeing 767 slicing into one tower of the World Trade Center in New York on a beautiful fall day caused horror. The image of the second 767 slicing into the second tower clarified matters.
It was an attack, not an accident. Then the plane went down in Pennsylvania and the 747 smashed into the Pentagon.
The scope of the intent became clear. These were kamikaze attacks, scaled up to cause as much damage to American economic and military power as possible.
The images from New York were so horrific - they seemed designed to inflict a psychological wound - that the mind has a tendency to repress them.
We should never allow that to happen.
It was the beginning of a tumultuous decade. The images piled up thick and fast: Afghan men silhouetted on a ridge, watching an avenging B-52 against a clear blue sky, American Special Forces, some from West Virginia, on horseback, riding with Afghan fighters. Afghan women, graceful in their flowing blue garb.
These sights were as new to American eyes as those of 9/11.
Then came the slow, clanking invasion of Iraq. News that some Americans had been killed and were missing because a column took a wrong turn. Grainy nighttime video of the retrieval of Jessica Lynch from a hospital in Iraq.
New shocks: In the name of America, some U.S. troops committed and videotaped their abuses at the prison at Abu Ghraib. In the name of Islam, Islamists videotaped beheadings, of Daniel Pearl in Afghanistan and of many others in Islam.
Innovations: the use of a children's toy, Silly String, to detect laser triggers for bombs inside buildings, the rapid deployment of drones to collect intelligence or deliver payloads, the deployment of robots to counter IEDs.
Car bombs. Blood in the streets.
Terrible military casualties, terrible civilian casualties, and families in every country that will never heal from them.
But later, another set of arresting images, seen worldwide.
Iraqis so eager to vote that they braved threats and violence to exercise that right. One memorable shot captured a long line of black-clad Iraqi women, all patiently waiting to cast ballots.
And later, a turn of events many Americans did not expect.
Car bombings and beheadings seemed to pall on the populations they were supposed to impress. The allure of savagery began to fade.
It seems from the outside that the overwhelmingly young populations of the Arab world began to turn their eyes from al Qaida's "far enemy" - America, the tyrants' target for blame - to targets closer to home.
At the "near enemy," the repressive and often corrupt regimes that have allied themselves with Islamists to hang onto legitimacy.
Technology intruded, too.
THE image of a Boeing 767 slicing into one tower of the World Trade Center in New York on a beautiful fall day caused horror. The image of the second 767 slicing into the second tower clarified matters.
It was an attack, not an accident. Then the plane went down in Pennsylvania and the 747 smashed into the Pentagon.
The scope of the intent became clear. These were kamikaze attacks, scaled up to cause as much damage to American economic and military power as possible.
The images from New York were so horrific - they seemed designed to inflict a psychological wound - that the mind has a tendency to repress them.
We should never allow that to happen.
It was the beginning of a tumultuous decade. The images piled up thick and fast: Afghan men silhouetted on a ridge, watching an avenging B-52 against a clear blue sky, American Special Forces, some from West Virginia, on horseback, riding with Afghan fighters. Afghan women, graceful in their flowing blue garb.
These sights were as new to American eyes as those of 9/11.
Then came the slow, clanking invasion of Iraq. News that some Americans had been killed and were missing because a column took a wrong turn. Grainy nighttime video of the retrieval of Jessica Lynch from a hospital in Iraq.
New shocks: In the name of America, some U.S. troops committed and videotaped their abuses at the prison at Abu Ghraib. In the name of Islam, Islamists videotaped beheadings, of Daniel Pearl in Afghanistan and of many others in Islam.
Innovations: the use of a children's toy, Silly String, to detect laser triggers for bombs inside buildings, the rapid deployment of drones to collect intelligence or deliver payloads, the deployment of robots to counter IEDs.
Car bombs. Blood in the streets.
Terrible military casualties, terrible civilian casualties, and families in every country that will never heal from them.
But later, another set of arresting images, seen worldwide.
Iraqis so eager to vote that they braved threats and violence to exercise that right. One memorable shot captured a long line of black-clad Iraqi women, all patiently waiting to cast ballots.
And later, a turn of events many Americans did not expect.
Car bombings and beheadings seemed to pall on the populations they were supposed to impress. The allure of savagery began to fade.
It seems from the outside that the overwhelmingly young populations of the Arab world began to turn their eyes from al Qaida's "far enemy" - America, the tyrants' target for blame - to targets closer to home.
At the "near enemy," the repressive and often corrupt regimes that have allied themselves with Islamists to hang onto legitimacy.
Technology intruded, too.
Worldwide, television screens filled with video from a new source - young Arabs (and Persians) texting, tweeting, blogging, capturing repression on cellphone cameras, marshalling support for change at home, communicating their experiences to a wider world.
And communities all over the world follow the news of impassioned Afghan-American, Iraqi-American, Iranian-American and Libyan-American patriots heading to the countries of their birth to help secure a better future.
Nobody can predict where any of this will go in the end.
It will be, as the George W. Bush administration warned, "a long war."
But the first terrible decade is behind us.
The danger of failed states that become safe havens for terrorists remains, in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia and beyond. Iran's regional ambitions continue to loom large.
Congress must maintain a robust military capability if the federal government is to do its primary job - providing for the national defense.
But the Bush administration's response to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, framed an alternative to reactionary savagery. That option may ultimately prove more seductive to hearts and minds that yearn to breathe free.
First Lt. Paul Phillips, a native of Charleston now serving in Iraq, put it well to the Daily Mail's Charlotte Ferrell Smith: "I've met a lot of Iraqis. Most are hard-working people like you and me.
"They want to better themselves. They want employment. They want to send their kids to school.
"If their kids get sick, they want to take them to a hospital. They want what we want."
Americans can understand and emphathize with that.
Who could have foreseen, 10 years ago, that Americans would be watching television fearing Islamist co-option of social change, but cheering Muslims who seek the same human rights we have?
The future belongs to those who provide things that develop more easily with the original American insight: If everybody agrees to let everybody else go his own way on religion, all the energy that goes into sectarian violence can be redirected to common goals: Peace and order.
They allow the development of water, dependable power, sanitation, education and medical care.
Here's hoping for progress toward that goal in the probably painful decades to come.
Maurice is editorial page editor of the Daily Mail. She may be reached at 348-4802 or ha...@dailymail.com.
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