The attacks that spawned two wars and will shout forever from history books are well receded from daily life for most Americans.
Not so for the soldiers who have fought or for those in government who know there will be hell to pay if the nation is ever caught so off guard again.
For the rest?
The "new normalcy," as life under threat was called 10 years ago and many times since, is resembling the old one. Airport security shakedowns excepted.
This, after an epoch shaped by fear and fighting, the onset of the Patriot Act and all its new powers and the cobbling together of a homeland security superstructure meant to see over everything and is itself overseen by more than 100 committees in Congress.
In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks, the United States was host to all sorts of un-American activities.
Perpetually bickering politicians hugged. Americans stopped shopping. Lawyers even ceased suing.
Almost everyone was on the same page.
Image: In this Aug. 10, 2011, file photo Sgt. 1st Class Nathan Marshall, 30, of Kahoka, Mo., center, and other soldiers of the Army's 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, wait for a flight home near a mural commemorating the World Trade Center at the Transit Center in Manas, Kyrgyzstan, after a year's deployment in Afghanistan. The brigade was the last to deploy as part of President Obama's 30,000 troop surge. The attacks that spawned two wars have receded from daily lives of most Americans, but not for the soldiers who have fought or for those in government who know there will be hell to pay if the nation is ever caught so off guard again.
Text & Images: AP