Our nation’s innocence was lost Tuesday morning — lost to the fanaticism of a group of individuals whose intention is to destroy that with which they disagree; to inflict hatred and anarchy on a country that believes in freedom and democracy; to destroy the basic ideals that make this country so great and to allow good to fall victim to evil.

They did not and will not succeed.

While the towers of the World Trade Center have been destroyed and the Pentagon seriously damaged, the basic foundations of those structures are still strong, for they are built on the strength of the American spirit.

As this country awoke Wednesday morning from the surreality of the events Tuesday, that American spirit awoke to a new patriotic unity, a unity that has been wandering in recent years, a unity that in a single moment solidified us together as one. Overnight,we forgot the religious, racial, ethnic and political barriers that separate, as we came together in a unified front.

That unity was never more evident than Tuesday evening as members of Congress stood on the steps of the Capitol and joined together to sing God Bless America. Gone were the political agendas, and gone were the self-interests. They were replaced by a unified leadership, unified behind the President. It was never more evident as rescue workers risked their lives to save others, nor more evident as Americans lined up to give blood for those in need.It was never more evident than on the faces of the American public or the American flags that have appeared across the country.

If there is any silver lining in the dark cloud of this tragedy,it is the good that comes from unity — a unity that will allow us to succeed as we have never succeeded before.

When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, a similar unity took over the nation. On that Sunday morning a generation lost its innocence and came together as one to stop the aggression of Germany and Japan. Their unity saved the world from tyranny and set the stage for the wealth and prosperity we enjoy today.

However, that generation had one advantage — they could identify their enemy. Today it is not so simple. We do not have a country to attack, but instead a religious sect whose ideology is wrapped around hatred and a belief that justifies their actions of death and destruction. We face a fanatic set of individuals who are spread around the world in 34 clandestine groups that make it very hard for our military to identify targets that would have a lasting impact.

Unlike the Gulf War, we do not have a country with an army to aim our missiles or send our troops. We cannot point at a map and show where they live, for they have neither country nor an ideology or structure that depends on a government entity. We can eliminate Osama bin Laden, but others will simply take his place. We are involved in a different kind of war, a terrorist war that knows no boundaries, nor any sense of humanity, a war we can win with the focus of the nation and the cooperation of the rest of the world but a war we must win without becoming the evil which we deplore.

We lost our innocence Tuesday morning, but we regained something more important, our spirit. It is that spirit that will lead us through this period, because we are a nation united by God and a nation that believes in the freedom of its people.

E-mail Bill Jacobs at bjacobs@dailyleader.com.