While radical Islam has been at war with the United States for decades (at least since the rise of the Ayatollah Khomeini in the 70s), today -- September 11, 2010 -- is the ninth anniversary of what was the single worst attack. The horrors of that day should never be forgotten, nor should it be forgotten that the war is ongoing.

Thanks to current government policies, it is now the war that dare not speak its name, lest we give offense to our enemies. (The war on terror can't even be called the war on terror; the official euphemism is now "overseas contingency operation.") Somehow, it is believed that what is not talked about will just go away, or at least be somewhere else. This is not a new idea; that head-in-the-sand policy was tried for years and it led directly to the attacks of 9/11. The idea was to finally get the attention of a country which had largely ignored attack after attack after attack, and boy did they ever. (I was listening to Howard Stern nine years ago, and when he suddenly screamed "This is World War III!" I realized he was deadly serious, and in that instant I knew that everything had changed.)

Howard Stern was right. It was -- and still is -- World War III.

The people who got our collective attention have never surrendered or signed an armistice. Nor have they agreed to downgrade their war to an "overseas contingency operation." They constantly regroup, and would love nothing more than to get our attention again with another, if possible much bigger and more dramatic, attack. The more determined we are to deny and to forget, the more determined they will become.

For those who like to think the war has somehow reverted to an overseas contingency operation, I suggest taking a look at the collection of posts that Glenn linked earlier.

It's a day we have to remember.