From Cheney today (when he wasn't calling those who don't think the Iraq war was a great idea terrorist sympathizers or continuing to flatly contradict the CIA on the nature of the relationship between Saddam and Zarqawi):



I don't want to sound like a spoilsport, but I don't understand the national amnesia that leads to the statements of "five years of no attacks."

Someone launched a very well-publicized terror attack shortly after September 11, 2001. The attacker used a substance that President Bush would later classify (while selling the Iraq war) as a biological weapon -- a weapon of mass destruction. This attack killed five people and injured seventeen others. It caused a national panic. Many buildings and facilities were closed for years, and the FBI estimates the total dollar cost of the attacks at $1 billion. Members of Congress were direct targets of this attack, which may have had an effect on the subsequent passage of the Patriot Act.





Yet, this is never mentioned. There are no "five years after" stories. We hear again and again from the administration and its apologists that America has been untroubled by terror since 9/11, as though these attacks never happened. Even worse, the case remains unsolved and no one seems to be much interested in solving it.

Why is this? Did the government not find a connection to Islamic terrorism and so disregard this terrorism (using WMDs!) as not relevant to their "war on terror"? Is five not a large enough body count to get attention? Is it only terrorism if airplanes are involved? Do attacks on Democrats and the media not worry right-wingers? (After all, people like Ann Coulter often publicly fantasize about violent attacks on Democrats and the media.) Do the American people simply not want to remember? Does it simply just not fit into the media's preferred "9/11 happened, then we fought back" narrative?

I don't know. But it's mighty strange.