As we all know, no one knows the future. A show of hands: who here has a different worldview than the one he or she held on September 10, 2001? My hand is up. Anyone else's?

Not mine.

Yeah, I'm surprised, too - but when I thought about it, my hand didn't go up. Maybe it depends on what one calls one's worldview. Mine didn't include as much detail as the capability of a terrorist group to organize the simultaneous hijacking of four airliners, let alone using them to 'bomb' buildings. But . . .

Was I surprised at the worldwide outpouring of sympathy in the aftermath? No.

Was I surprised at the jingoism, the bellicosity, the waving of the Tattered Flag and the Bloody Shirt - concurrent with the mourning and solemnity - as part of America's reaction? No.

Was I surprised to learn that the ponderous, uncoordinated American bureaucracy was unable to detect and intercept the plot before its execution, or to pay attention to the few individuals who might've been on to something, and said so? No.

Was I surprised at any of the machinations that lead to the invasion of Iraq? The undiscovery of weapons? The Baathist resistance? The religious factional fighting? The difficulty of replacing feudalism with democracy? No, to all that.

Was I surprised at world reaction to the belligerent unilateralism of the Bush administration? No. They'd used every possible opportunity, prior to September 2001, to make their general course clear.

Maybe my worldview already partook enough of "It can</> happen here." Shocked and appalled - of course I was. But was I shaken off my foundation, required to rethink my entire outlook?

Sorry.