Consider: What If Dick Cheney Is Right?

Impossible? Difficult to hold that idea in your head? Better just to pretend the threat does not exist and vilify the man who warns of this nightmare of destruction. To those who think that way, I offer up another Einstein quote: "The world is a dangerous place. Not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it."

Why do some on the left hate Mr. Cheney so for trying to do something about this?

A week from today will be the eighth anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001. At 8 a.m. on the East Coast on that fateful day, the sun was shining, the sky was a vivid blue, and the normal worries and joys of life occupied most minds as people began the day. Forty-six minutes later, the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York City was struck. By 10:28 a.m., both towers had collapsed, killing almost 3,000 innocent people. Terror, panic and a feeling of hopelessness gripped the nation.

Eight years later, complacency perilously rules the day. Most have forgotten. Most have forgotten the terror, forgotten the hate, forgotten the indescribable pain and destruction, and forgotten the lessons. Most - but not Mr. Cheney. He refuses. At the risk of his reputation, he has made it his life's work to never forget. For to forget is to condemn our nation to much worse.

The evil that resides in the sick minds of these terrorists can't be reasoned with, can't be bought off and can't be appeased. What if Mr. Cheney is right, and those who hate him on the far left are wrong?

There are no second chances in this debate. We remain vigilant or we pay an unimagined price.

Douglas MacKinnon is a former White House and Pentagon official and a novelist. His e-mail is [e-mail].