Not empty because of all the people who were taken from us that day. Empty in the sense that almost everyone has forgotten the sense of doing what we needed to do to fix the evil that happened that day.

First it was the relentless attacks, not just on Bush, but also on his policies from the very first days of the wars both in Iraq and Afghanistan. It started out small, more so on Iraq, but opposition grew and grew and grew. It was fueled by a terrible partisanship as well as blind anti-Westernism hiding as pacifism.

By the end of the Bush term, they had piled on enough to make the Iraq war unpopular despite effectively winning that war. And now, at this date, the Afghan war is reaching the same levels of unpopularity. This was suppose to be the good war, the no-brainer. Of course we should have attacked. Afghanistan was the country harboring those who planned the 9/11 attacks.

Now it is either bordering on unpopular if not out right unpopular. The American public has been worn down by people like Krugman and the author of this diary. Sure they are coming at it from different directions, but they have ended up in the same place with regards to the Afghan war.

Despite winning in Iraq, killing Osama bin Laden, and making good progress in Afghanistan (although a long ways from winning there), the atmosphere in the U.S. is more one of defeat. We are no longer living after September 11. We have reverted back to September 10.

Which takes me back to my first point. I have had no interest in watching any of the 9/11 memorials today. I have had no interest in remembering any of my personal details from that day. All day long I have just wanted the day to be over with. I couldn’t figure out why, though. I have been bombarded with reflections today from radio, t.v., and even the church sermon this morning. But all day I have felt empty.

This diary has reminded me that the majority of people just don’t give a damn anymore about the wars. I do, but I am in the constantly shrinking minority. I fear the kind of world this attitude will leave my children.

We have not gotten rid of all of this particular cancer. We have gotten it greatly reduced, but the medical treatments are not finished. In some ways we feel better, at least better enough to stop the treatments. In some ways we still feel lousy and are tempted to think that if we stop the treatments we will feel like we did before. But if we don’t eliminate the threat, it will come back. Sure we will feel better for a few years, but it will be back. It will first kill more people than the original 9/11 attacks and then it will take more soldiers’ lives than the original wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And they will last even longer the next time, that is assuming we can even muster the resolve the next time around.

I don’t want to leave my children this world. I don’t seem to have any choice.