Alex,
Had Vietnam or China driven airplanes into New York skyscrapers, things might be different.
IMHO it is easy for hardened, embittered people to see the West as arrogant and effete- a despicable target. Unless we prove otherwise, our kids may learn to resent us for the unsettled world we leave them. So IMHO it doesn't matter anymore whether the invasion was justified. The challenge for the US is to persuade those who opposed the invasion to share some of the current risk and cost. I think that will happen, and that in itself carries a lesson about unity that I hope we have all taken on board.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
