No one forgets where they were that day.

For us – college students – it was almost universally in the classroom. We got a different kind of education that day, a horrifying mathematics involving the subtraction of life, the addition of fear and a multiplication of violence.

It changed our lives. We are a generation that didn’t live through a world war and a surprise attack, through Korea or Vietnam or the Cold War.

The counterstrike was quick, brutal and wide of the mark. Now, this generation has spent half of our lives at war. It’s become a fact of life. It shouldn’t have to be.

America has poured money and lives into the Middle Eastern sinkhole for far too long. When it started, almost everyone – blinded by anger, perhaps, or a desire for justice – was behind military action. It makes sense. Punch us, and we will punch you back.

But year after year, the search came up empty. It took the better part of the last decade to actually locate and kill the man responsible for the attack on our country.

We haven’t lost the war. We haven’t quite won it yet, either. Sometimes, there’s an unpleasant place inbetween where it’s time to just stop, and sometimes that takes more strength and courage in leadership then just plan winning or losing would.

There’s supposedly a plan in place for withdrawing the troops, but we’ve heard this before. It’s action, not rhetoric, that the American people are interested in.

Now, for the tenth time, the flowers have been placed, the names read, the black armbands donned.  It’s a tradition that will, and should, continue.

But every week, more Americans fall, indirectly, to the attacks. With the death of Osama bin Laden earlier this year, the big fish was caught, filleted and fried.

Now, it’s time to stop adding victims.

-The Editors