National security. I don't know what it will take for Americans to realize that the terrorists truly are at war with us (although we have not yet ourselves realized that we need to fight this as a war, and to devote the resources we need to do it). The recent beheadings of two US citizens, plus other attacks (in Saudi, notably) on Western interests, ought to start getting the message across. If we don't get with it against terrorism, and see national security as the Number One issue, it's all over. I can understand that there are those who, not without reason, have problems with why we got into Iraq, whether there was enough justification, whether we have enough troops there, how it angered a lot of the Muslim world, etc., but the fact is that the terrorists didn't just change their minds overnight from being pro-American to rabid fanatics against the US. The small number of terrorists are really exerting an influence all out of proportion to their numbers - we need to protect this country from attack and go after the terrorists with a vengeance, no matter where we find them. I could go on and on about the need for better intelligence cooperation among agencies at all levels, cooperation with foreign intel agencies, getting support from other Western nations, getting the Saudis to stop being so damned tribal in their outlook and cracking down on terror in their own country, etc., etc., but it all coalesces into a national security issue in the end. Everything else can be sorted out later, but first we have to survive, otherwise there is nothing left to sort out.