Opinion

Sept. 10, 2001

Eight years ago today, Islamic radicals carried out the worst attack ever on US soil, igniting a full-bore war on terror. But America’s willingness to keep up that fight faces a huge test.

At Ground Zero, the now-annual ritual will be conducted: Moments of silence will be observed, and a list of the names of those who died will be read.

This will occur nearby the still-shamefully incomplete reconstruction project — eight long years on, itself a monument to the fecklessness of New York’s political establishment.

But the true test of US resolve is taking place far from that site — in places like Afghanistan, where a brutal Taliban regime once provided refuge to those behind the attack. And where terrorists seek to make a comeback today.

Indeed, Afghanistan is a microcosm of the War on Terror: Victory there seems elusive and, indeed, hard even to define.

So, as memories of 9/11 fade — with, mercifully, no new attacks to recall them — some Americans are starting to wonder if this war truly must be fought.

Indeed it must.

For the threat is no smaller today than it was on Sept. 10, 2001 — the day before radical Islam so dramatically revealed its malign intentions.

Be assured that the Islamists are in it for the long run; their commitment to a return to the eighth century remains intact.

An American withdrawal from the Afghanistan front would serve only to energize them, further destabilize Pakistan and place in even greater peril American allies and interests in the Mideast — and at home.

Perseverance means a long, bloody struggle, with no certainty of outcome.

But surrender guarantees the peace of the grave.

That remains the message of 9/11.