[ OUR OPINION ]
9/11 has left a permanent
imprint on America
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A car bomb that exploded outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta Thursday was claimed by a terrorist group linked to the same culprits who took down the World Trade Center, fractured the Pentagon and ripped a gash through a Pennsylvania field on this day three years ago.
In Jakarta, at least nine people were killed, including suspected suicide bombers, and another 170 were injured, but those numbers are dwarfed by the nearly 3,000 who died in the 9/11 attacks.
The strike on the United States has become a grim touchstone of terrorism. Its tentacles coil through a totality of life here and elsewhere in the world. In America, it colors government, business and societal issues. Nothing is immune to its stains.
While not numb to terrorism, the constant blows throughout the world -- the most recent in Madrid, Bali, Saudi Arabia and Russia -- work to desensitize; another day, another bombing. At the same time, whispers of threat surround us.
A glimpse of a scuba diver sends authorities trolling through Honolulu's harbors. A scofflaw driver near the airport sparks a full alert. Any large gathering of people demands heightened security unprecedented in a country where free speech and free movement, once treasured, are corralled, sometimes with necessity, other times not.
On the political stage, terrorism and its awful cousins -- the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq -- engulf all other matters. Education, health care, employment and the economy have become spin-offs in an orbit of strife.
This feeds a perception that strength to lead the country is based in manliness, sparking squabbles about military service records, Purple Hearts and honorable discharges when rational policies and decisive goals are needed.
The fog of war intelligence has fixed the United States in Iraq. It no longer matters that the administration-held notion that Iraq was involved in the 9/11 attacks was false. We are deep into a conflict from which we will not escape without scars and without the grievous loss of life, both American and Iraqi.
It's easier to turn away from the noise of the war, to push into the background body counts and the confusing geopolitical components of an unfamiliar society so far away from Hawaii. Here, tourists who stayed at home after 9/11 are returning in droves, invigorating the economy. More people have jobs as confident retailers pour in and home and commercial construction swell.
Although the suspicion that we are still vulnerable remains, resilience and an island spirit keep Hawaii buoyant. While we pause to commemorate that terrible day, what else can we do but go on?
