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But shouldn’t he – and President Clinton and the CIA and the FBI and maybe even the PTA — have figured that out years earlier?

After all, who do we think was behind the attack on the World Trade Center in 1993?

And it was back in 1996 that bin Laden published his “Declaration of War Against the Americans.” 

For those who may have thought he only meant to paint graffiti on McDonald’s in Paris, in 1997 and 1998 bin Laden stated publicly that his followers would “bring the fighting to America.”

But  in most of the media bin Laden was described – if he was described at all — as a “relic” of the U.S-backed mujahedin in Afghanistan, or at worst a “financier” of terrorism. 

Still, what if  President Bush  had said in the summer of  2001: “Let’s get serious about terrorism.” What could he have done?

Well, he could have invaded Afghanistan, toppled the Taliban and attacked al Qaeda strongholds. But can you really imagine members of Congress — Republican or Democratic – giving him the authority to do that?

He could have instructed the CIA to assassinate any al Qaeda members they could find anywhere in the world. Which newspaper editorial board would have applauded him?

And he could have rounded up and deported Arabs and Muslims living in the US illegally. You think the ACLU would have supported that?

Few of these actions were being discussed, much less advocated by the diplomats, scholars and journalists who comprise the foreign policy elite. But even if Bush had taken all of them by the summer of 2001, the 9/11 plot was probably too far along to stop.

In which case, after the attack, the charge would have been made that it was Bush’s unilateral invasion, extra-judicial assassinations and oppression of a minority group that provoked it.

That said, there are things that  President Bush could have done earlier – as could President Clinton and both their predecessors. 

We’ve known about suicide bombers since at least 1983, when Hezbollah terrorists murdered more than 250 Americans in Beirut.

We’ve known about hijackers, too…so why didn’t we train and arm some airline pilots? Or deploy sky marshals?  OR at least reinforce cockpit doors? 

 Even so, had all that been done, what would have happened on 9/11? Probably,  something more like the  attack on commuter trains in Madrid. Which means the death toll would have been in the hundreds rather than the thousands. Better – but hardly good enough.

In the end, the only way to win a war against terrorism is to wage a war against terrorism. And in the years prior to 9/11, though a war was being waged against us, we were not ready, willing or able to fight back.

Tragically, it required the shock of 9/11 to make most Americans – in government, in the media and in the streets – wake up to the seriousness of global terrorism. Now  it’s vital that we not let complacency set in – vital that we stay on a “war footing” – no matter who wins in November.

Clifford May is president of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a policy institute established immediately after 9/11, focusing on terrorism.