Here, a few days after September 11, 2001, a helicopter gunship circles lower Manhattan, caught between two skyscrapers and highlighted against a background of smoke from the still-burning buildings at Ground Zero.

It's five years, now. What have we learned? Are we still in danger, or are we safer now? Has our government used the time and the resources, given without limit, to make things better, or are we worse off than we were before?

Up until then, the two greatest attacks on American soil were the bombing in Oklahoma City, and a previous attempt to destroy the World Trade Center. In both cases, those responsible were captured and brought to a public trial.

Since 9-11, the current administration has spent over half a trillion dollars prosecuting its "War on Terror." Two countries have been invaded and occupied. More American lives have been lost on foreign soil than were killed in the initial attacks, with tens of thousands more wounded. Over 100,000 civilians in two countries have been killed. We have destroyed the infrastructure of those countries and left them in civil war, or worse.

In the meantime, we have had countless terror alerts, and airline passengers are subjected to bizarre rituals and molestation while high-profile sites like our ports, nuclear reactors, and chemical plants go unguarded. A real attack on the gulf coast by a hurricane left thousands dead and hundreds of thousands homeless, simply because the government agencies, meant to deal with this, had been gutted and filled with cronies and political yes-men.

In our name, there is now a secret network of prisons. Torture, spying, and assassination have been condoned by the administration. They are certainly guilty of war crimes.

And for what?

Here we are, five years later, with great expense of blood and treasure, and not a single terrorist, including those behind the 9-11 attacks, has been brought to trial.