SpyTalk

If nothing else,  Mumbai closes the chapter on the circa-9/11 terror era, at least for Americans.

The period following Sept. 11, 2001 airline hijackings, in fact, looks like the good ol' days, in light of how al Qaeda has metastacized into the hydra-headed terrorism monster we face today.

Back then, with the remains of the Twin Towers still smoldering, the thinking was that all we had to do was roll up our sleeves  to make fast work of  Osama bin Laden and his gang of cave dwellers. But the fugitive Saudi millionaire's escape into the snows of the Hindu Kush, with the help of the Pakistani army, showed that we were playing in a far more complicated game.

Mumbai puts an exclamation point on it.

Until Mumbai, when it emerged that the terrorists were singling out U.S., along with British and Israeli citizens, most Americans were probably only dimly aware that the beta version of al Qaeda had long been eclipsed by an even more lethal 2.0.

Today, al Qaeda affiliates and wannabees are roiling a crescent-shaped swath of the world ranging from the Philippines across the Indian subcontinent through the Middle East to the westernmost tip of North Africa.  Its émigrés have launched attacks from or in Germany, Britain, France, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy. 

But the terror hasn't really touched Americans in demonstrative numbers. Whether by good fortune or the skills of our counterterrorism warriors, or both, we have escaped the Muslim fundamentalist plague infesting the rest of the world.

Mumbai should make clear that our luck may be running out. Luxury hotels where Americans stay cannot be protected in any meaningful sense.

And another thing: That CIA renditions,  Predator missile strikes in Pakistan and more U.S. troops in Afghanistan may not only not solve the problem, they may aggravate it. 

Guns are so 2001-2002.

And back then we had the world's goodwill from the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks.

The Bush administration squandered it Iraq, immeasurably making the challenge more difficult. 

We can never get that back. 

The election of  a very smart black man with Hussein in his name as President of the United States amounts, at this late point,  to only a slim chance at a fresh start.