IT’S BECOME customary to say September 11 changed everything. As much as one could hope it did, it now seems that only a minority is still at war; for the majority, business-as-usual replaced the unwelcome reality of a conflict that didn’t end.

By the time the Towers fell, all Americans knew war had been declared on them. By the time New Orleans fell, most of them thought war was being fought in Iraq, and therefore it’s no longer their concern. It’s as if in 1944 the nation sent the best young men to Normandy and instead of praying for their success, let them do “their thing” and found something else to think about.

Mark Steyn suggests nobody believes in War on Terror anymore. Perhaps it really got lost between War on Drugs and War on Poverty. Throw in War on Fat, and Tobacco, and whatnot – the point is, the nation can only fight so many wars at once. Bush’s predecessors polluted the language to the extent its future value is uncertain.

With Osama still at large, it’s perhaps logical that the Chief is losing ground. Successes in Iraq are difficult to demonstrate. Not only does the constant media bombardment of bad news make good news sound implausible, but even the partial accomplishments are transitory only; there’s still so much to do there. Truth to be told, the administration isn’t selling this well, not by any standard of modern political marketing. It’s becoming harder to keep being a cheerleader for spreading democracy if the key relationship between liberated Middle East and safer America (and West in general) isn’t being discussed enough.

It’s necessary to understand this war in a very personal context. It’s your freedom of speech, your freedom to associate, your freedom to sin within the secular framework of Western law, what is on the table. If you listen to Angry left, you sometimes wonder whether they want to be stoned, hung from a crane, or garroted; the liberal guilt is at play again with a vengeance. Yet the majority of sane Americans certainly do not.

Unless we’re clear about that, this war cannot be won.

What stands between me and despair, however, is my belief in America. She survived Pearl Harbor – and rebuilt Japan to its image. She survived the treacherous Sixties – and we’ve got a conservative revival. America can sustain maximum damage and still come ahead victorious. If she believes.

Does she? I believe so.

POSTSCRIPT: Donald Rumsfeld: “Throughout history there have been those who seek power through fear and mass murder. But eventually all of them--everyone--fell under the weight of their fanaticism and the courage and determination of free people.”