On September 12, 2001, I remember writing a short essay. Its title was “We Will Forget.” On May 3, 2006, we made it official.

But it all started in August 2001. That’s when Zacarias Moussaoui was arrested for a visa violation. This particular unwelcome visitor harbored some of the wickedest knowledge imaginable. He knew about an unimaginable day of terror that would soon make the world lose its breath. He knew hijacked jetliners filled with screaming people would slam into civilian buildings. He knew about the fire and the smoke and the blood.

In fact, he wanted to be a part of it. He conspired with al Qaeda. He visited Middle Eastern jihadist training camps. He took flight lessons in Oklahoma so he could murder everyone in the White House on board a fifth hijacked flight. He lied to fbi agents so the attacks could take place.

He stayed silent, right up until knives were being pulled out, right up until flight patterns started changing, right up until four jets shot through America’s downtown, its pride, and its pastures, straight into its heart. Right up until 8:46:40 a.m.

Right up until the bodies started falling.

And as the blood of 3,000 people washed over his consciousness, Moussaoui became all the more satisfied. It was after his trial began that he bragged about intending to hijack the fifth plane and that he cursed the judge, the court and everyone else, and clapped his hands, saying “America, you lost. I won.”

Whether or not Moussaoui’s fate in a federal supermax prison, where he will spend 23 hours a day alone in his cell and one hour a day alone in spartan “recreation,” is a “win” for Moussaoui or not, there is a bigger issue at hand.

In Western justice, there is—or used to be—the basic idea or at least hope that if you were to go out and do the worst thing ever, you would be caught, tried, and executed. Say, for instance, if you contributed to the execution of 3,000 innocent people in the most macabre terrorist act committed on American soil, and then you proudly mouthed off during your trial, sarcastically waved to the judge, mocked justice and said you were still eager to kill Americans “anytime, anywhere.”

The judge’s contrary response that, even though he had escaped the death penalty, it was Moussaoui who had lost, rings a bit hollow.

Because we did lose.

Here is what we lost: Memory. Courage. Determination. Justice. Sanity.

America’s decision to sentence a man who stuck a box cutter into its heart and would obviously love to get the chance to slice it open again makes you wonder: Have we become too “sophisticated”? Is it possible to be too “enlightened”? It is certainly possible that we have forgotten the horror of September 11. The appropriate response to that act is not revenge, but decisive punishment that warns future enemies: If you murder thousands of people and are unrepentant, you will be executed yourself.

If Zacarias Moussaoui, the face next to “incorrigible” in the dictionary, “didn’t deserve the death penalty,” as Peggy Noonan wrote, “who does? Who ever did?”

The death penalty debate itself notwithstanding, the Moussaoui sentencing reveals one major flaw in American national character that is contributing to the fall of our society—not as fast as those towers fell, but almost.

In our liberal, enlightened culture, we have managed to forget what Zacarias Moussaoui (and the plot’s masterminds, who are in American custody but likely will not be tried) helped cause on September 11, 2001. We are intellectualizing ourselves into a national character more resembling warm pudding than backbone. A nation that “sophisticatedly” treats its enemies with such a bizarre and illogical form of “compassion” cannot last.

During his presidency, Theodore Roosevelt spoke softly but carried a big stick. Though he was labeled a “warmonger,” not one bullet flew under his administration—because America was respected and feared. During the Reagan administration, detractors accused the president of the same. When Libyan terrorists in the Middle East began taking American civilians hostage and attacking civilian targets, Reagan retaliated, striking so close to Muammar Qadhafi that members of his immediate family were killed. That terror-sponsoring state fell silent for years, and caused substantially fewer deaths.

Today, however, our culture is crippled with “sophistication.” Cause and effect have become blurry theories. Facts can be manipulated. Truth is subjective.

If Zacarias Moussaoui and those who contribute to the deaths of thousands of innocent Americans and strike mortal blows against the nation as a whole are not worthy of the death penalty, the gravest penalty against the gravest crimes does not, in fact, exist. Its actual purpose—to deter future murderers and to protect the nation—isn’t even on the radar.

Even though the rest of his life will be spent in a concrete black hole, maybe Zacarias Moussaoui had a point.

For more on justice, the death penalty, and God’s plan for all of mankind, including incorrigible criminals, please refer to our article “The Merciful Death Penalty,” or read your Bible (particularly Revelation 20, Ezekiel 37, and other scriptures describing God’s plan of resurrection).