Imagine that on the morning of September 12, 2001, the shocked national political leadership in both parties had understood the necessity to take a deep, long look at the Irreconcilable Wing of Islam.

Imagine that the President and Congressional leaders on a bipartisan basis had mandated a series of public hearings on the scale of the radical Wahhabist financing from sources in Saudi Arabia, the degree of Iranian and Syrian support for terrorism, the various propagandizing and recruiting efforts that were underway to attract terrorists at a rate faster than we could kill or imprison them.

Imagine that on September 12, 2001 the news media had begun a series of informative, in-depth explorations of the Iranian war against America

With this starting context, an alternative history might well have played out

The key debate for the next year ought to be the larger war, the real enemies, the need for a real strategy, and solutions to the scale of the challenge we face.