Rumsfeld told reporters that American progress on the war on terror had prompted a backlash from those who hoped at some point that the United States might conclude that the pain and cost of fighting wasn’t worth it. Rumsfeld declared: “Our enemies have underestimated our country. They have failed to understand the character of our people.”

The capacity to wage war is bound to a nation’s willingness to suffer casualties. In battle, some human beings will die. If a nation can accept the fact that its soldiers may die, a nation is unable to wage war. In order to wage war in Afghanistan and Iraq, the United States had to overcome the policy of casualty aversion that had dominated the Nineties. America had to embrace—once more—the will to sacrifice.

President George Bush spoke in similar terms about the character of the American people and their willingness to sacrifice. He declared immediately after the September 11 attacks that the “resolve of our great nation is being tested.” But make no mistake, the President said, we will “show the world that we will pass this test.”

In his speech of May 8, 2004, Bush stated that not so long ago some had expressed doubt about the American character and the capacity of the United States to “meet a challenge.” Americans, he said, had given their answer: “I have seen the unselfish courage of our troops. I have seen the heroism of Americans in the face of danger.”

Character, revolve, the capacity to meet a challenge, heroism: these terms refer to the willingness to fight in battle knowing that there is a possibility that one will be killed. To put it bluntly, war cannot be waged unless some men and women accept the fact that it is possible that they will die in battle.

On September 5, 2006, President Bush cited Bin Laden’s Mogadishu statement and responded directly to his provocative remarks about America’s lack of courage. Bin Laden and his allies, the President said, are absolutely convinced that they can succeed in “forcing America to retreat—and cause our economic collapse.” Responding to the belief that the United States was “weak and decadent and lacking in patience and resolve,” President Bush stated simply, “They’re wrong.”

George Bush would prove to the world that Americans were not “weak and decadent”—that we do not lack courage. By engaging the enemy in battle, the United States would prove that its people possessed strength and willpower. By fighting on in the face of casualties—refusing to “cut and run”—America would demonstrate the character of the American people.

Willingness to take casualties—to sacrifice lives in battle—is bound to a society’s attachment and desire to defend its sacred ideals. One fights and dies for one’s country, and what it represents. Americans waged war in order to prove their devotion to “freedom and democracy.”

Bin Laden initiated acts of terror in the name of Islam and Allah. Citing the Quran, he told his disciples that even if they did not like killing and fighting, nevertheless: “Fighting is prescribed for you, and ye dislike it. But is possible that ye dislike a thing, which is good for you, and that ye love a thing which is bad for you.” Even if one disliked fighting, one was obligated to wage war against infidels for the sake of Allah.

Bin Laden felt that he had no choice but to act as he did. “Our life on this planet,” he declared, would be meaningless if we did not “worship the God of the Ancient House.” In a similar vein, George Bush proclaimed on August 21, 2006: “We will complete the mission in Iraq. If we ever give up the desire to help people to live in freedom, we will have lost our soul as a nation.”

War and terrorism are sometimes conceived as a “return” to our primitive, animal nature. Precisely the opposite: acts of political violence grow out of spiritual attachment: to one’s society and its sacred ideals. The most brutal violent acts are undertaken in the name of rescuing and defending our highest values. As Hitler put it, “We may be inhumane, but if we rescue Germany, we will have performed the greatest deed in the world.

John Lennon asked us to “Imagine there’s no country:” to conceive of a world in which there was “nothing to kill or die for.” Apparently, many people cannot bear the idea of such a world: they fear that life would be meaningless—that they would lose their soul.