William Murchison wonder where all the unity went after the attacks on September 11, 2001 in a post at RealClearPolitics:
Americans found and asserted their American identity. It took some effort. Vietnam, Watergate and the Clinton years had produced deep national divisions. The 2000 presidential election had dug them deeper still.
Nevertheless, enough national spirit remained to further and facilitate the coming together of the American family in the interest of suitably punishing the murderous foes of that family. We all embraced one another. We were in this thing together. God bless the USA.
His memory is faulty. On the international scene there was never any unity. Many, including notional allies, thought we deserved it. On the domestic scene, as has been documented, by December of 2001, long before the invasion of Iraq, major media outlets, through a combination of agreeing with those notional allies or in the process of preparing the battlefield for the 2002 midterm elections, began a campaign of opposition. Such unity as there was had already vanished and it has never returned.
