On September 11, 2001, a small number of desperate men hoping to earn paradise attacked New York and Washington, D.C. Their spectacular acts of destruction concluded America's nearly decade-long vacation from insecurity, known as the -post-Cold War era.- As eras go, this one was short and it certainly ended with a bang, not a whimper. The United States, still sole superpower, was now challenged by a bleak new world. Americans do not care for the bleak and do not tolerate it for long. Predictably, national shock soon became righteous anger, coupled to international campaigns against groups...