Are We At War?

Callimachus writes about the movie "Flight 93" and then discusses how the movie, and the critical commentary from all sides about the movie, describes how Americans view the world today. Then he notes...

The main difference among Americans today is that some of us believe the United States is at war, a dangerous war against a desperate enemy. And other people don't believe that's true at all. To the non-believers, the people who are waging war look insanely violent, paranoid, and unstable. To the people at war, it takes great mental effort to look at those who don't believe it and not see appeasers and useful idiots, if not outright traitors.

Now, I don't think this is entirely true, as there are many other issues that define how we think and believe. But in the last few years the issue of how the Middle East and certain groups of people around the world hold our future for ransom does seem to define a split in the American conscience.
He also makes a point of saying that this is larger than just a like/hate Bush issue. This is beyond Bush, in the end he won't matter. It's perfectly fine to criticize how he is conducting things, as long as it's constructive criticism. However, it's another thing entirely to miss the point and refuse to see that there is a conflict over the future of our civilization.