Let me start off by saying that I, thankfully, did not personally know anyone who perished as a result of the attacks two years ago so while I cannot offer any sort of insider's account as to how it feels to lose someone I care about to such a senseless and evil act, just what I feel as an American, and more importantly, as a human being.

-On terrorists as cowards=
A lot of people throw this term around but never with much rhyme or, especially, reason. Here's why I agree with the use of the term.
Al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, Jemmah Islamiyah and the rest of them combined could never hope to achieve their visions without a form of asymmetric warfare.
As a result, they resort to attacking innocent civilians (and soliders, at least outside of Iraq and Afghanistan), in non-defensive posture. Faced with the prospect of one on one, or some permutation thereof, the fundamentalist jihadi will avoid never
In the meantime, responsible civilized armies (of which I consider the United State one) fight fair: targeting combatants only, following Geneva conventions, nation building after its over.
Now I'm no sycophant for every U.S foreign policy initiatives by any means but to, in any way, equate the United States with a terrorist nation, is simply unwarranted and slanderous.

-On the passengers of the 9/11 flights (excluding Flight 93)=Despite what may have been inferred previously, these people were by no means cowards at all. They simply did not know what fate would befall them, until it was much too late to do anything other than say their bittersweet goodbyes.
Being a human and having all the feeling that it entails, I truly believe in my heart of hearts, that had they known, they would've done all they could to take those planes down far far away from Lower Manhattan and not have the slighest regret about it.

-On "forgetting" 9/11=This has always been the ultimate straw man in American political debate since. On the surface, the question is ridiculous; no one, lest they amnesia, will ever truly forget those attacks. As to what direction they believe we should take in terms of foreign policy, that's another direction entirely. Be it a member of a Green Party or a Quaker, obviously they would never forget 9/11, they'd just interpret differently from a Democrat/Republican, This turns the whole debate into a worldview argument, an important one, but not one which has to do with one's memory.

-On Civil liberties=This debate has been stolen by zealots on both sides. Those who believe that if you're not willing to give up everything

-On the "Just Get Over It" crowd- Two words: Fuck off. If you don't experience someone's grief, then you hardly have the right to decide how or how not that person should deal with it. If someone who knew a victim wants to get over it, fine; if someone who knew a victim doesn't, then there's not much you could anyway.

-On those who want to make you stare at footage the Twin Towers 24/7=Three words: Fuck off too. I understand completely the urge to make sure these events are remembered by future generation in a dignified and solemn way, but too often many (read: right-wingers) end up making everything an issue of 9/11. That is, you must agree with me, or the terrorists win.
We should certainly debate the merits of policies in light of the spetember 11th attacks and the threat of terrorism but shoving empty-headed jingoism down people's throats will simply get you nowhere.
Unfortunately, that seems to be the clarion call of too much of the right these days.

-On the far left= If you want to say "America had it coming" and all that other bullshit, fine. But don't poison the national debate to the point where rational critics of a American foreign policy have to be painted in the same corner as socialist nuts like The Worker's World Party.

-On Neoconservatives=I have to give them credit for deciding to stand up and recognize that there is indeed evil in the world and that it must be dealt with if we are to survive. However, this sense of (necessary) moral clarity all to often devolves into pointless hubris and ends up damaging interests (national and otherwise) much more than necessary. That being said, I prefer the Richard Perle vision of the world more than that of a Noam Chomsky, but not by a whole lot.

On the Rest of the World=The right-wing needs to stop acting like every other country has to feel the way we do or else. Having never experienced an attack on the scale of 9/11, it's a pretty extreme leap of faith to having the normal feelings of sympathy and being willing to stake administrations and the resources of a nation, when no real vital interests are at stake.
The former I expect from decent people, the latter is a bit more prickly

-On a memorial=Clearly, something is needing at the original site to commerate those lives lost.
However, talk about a recent schism between families about building separate memorials for emergency workers and everyone is troubling.
Those firefighters and police officers were doing their job. A job which required extreme bravery true, but a job nonetheless. Asking for them to be singled out for a sort of memorial unto themselves strikes me as saying their lives were worth more than a financial analyst, an artist, or a janitor.
I'm sure that's a judgement not even they would make.

-On America=For all its flaws, this is still a country which has proved that it can come together when it really matters.
While the 3,000 who died in the attacks was 3,000 too many, we must remember that on any given day some 50,000 were in the towers of the World Trade Center. I would say that those 47,000 did not perish owes itself, in large part, to a mix of providence(divine or not) and heroism. Nowhere else was this more evident than on Flight 93, when a group of determined passengers decided that they would become weapons against their own nation and fought back, even though it meant giving their lives.
Truly it illustrated in vivid detail indispensible part of the human spirit which awakens the best in us in the worst of times.

-On Humanity=The way I look at it, there are more of those who love life than those who love death. So basically, we've pretty much won already. And we can't forget that.