America, often seen as the world's safe haven and leader in defense, has failed to live up to this status. As the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon deteriorated on national television, so did the United States' citizens sense of invincibility. We no longer have the feeling that we are immune from terrorist rage. Gone is the feeling of personal safety of our friends and family.
             This imagined sense of invulnerability was created over the years from various components. First of all, the basic integrity of American democracy gives the assumption that no enemy could remain angry with us for very long. Secondly, it was assumed that no one in their right mind would take on America's highly technological security operation. Third, it was unimaginable to think that our technocrats could be outsmarted by what we underestimated to be peasants living in the world's almost medieval areas. This false sense of security instilled in the majority of American's minds collapsed in a mess of smoke, ashes, and some thousands of bodies as the attack on America's foundations of military and financial power was executed as foully planned. In reality, there was never any concrete reason to believe the United States was completely out of harm's way. but our trusted leaders definitely gave us several logical ones. Even when the World Trade Center towers were initially bombed in 1993, our sense of strength was actually reassured, not weakened. The towers stood. The losses were not nearly comparable to what happened on September 11, 2001. The guilty party was caught, security increased, and life resumed as usual. Now, selling Americans on the thought of a world kept peaceful by America will be much more difficult. Our concept of invulnerability has been corrupted. Assessing reality will involuntarily been done in a much harsher light.
             ...