Twenty-four years after that bright September morning turned black, the catechism still drones: they hate us for our freedom. Yet post-9/11 America has taught dogma differently—freedom as permission slip, freedom as a hall pass subject to revocation, freedom as something administered by a clipboard and credentials.

Such freedom is not something to be envious of. But Osama bin Laden and his nineteen henchmen were never concerned about freedom in the first place. Not our kind anyway.

“Fifteen days...