John McCain accuses Barack Obama of harboring a “September 10th mindset.”

Here’s the truth: Most Americans have a September 10th mindset, including McCain himself.

If any transformation should have occurred after terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, it’s the ethic of universal service during times of national crisis. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor brought the United States into World War II, America responded with a military draft, higher taxes and ration stamps to support the war effort.

Today? Nothing. America may face a war on terror that’s the equivalent of World War III, but any sacrifice in the great battle against Muslim extremism is completely voluntary. No politician, including McCain, proposes to change that.

The unwillingness to ask anything of Americans isn’t without consequences. Our leaders tell us that winning the Iraq war is absolutely critical to our national security, but these same leaders could never scrape up more than 160,000 combat troops for Iraq at any given time. Those same leaders can only summon 32,000 troops for the war in Afghanistan, where the situation is getting worse, not better. Remember, it was Afghanistan, not Iraq, that hosted the network that was responsible for the 9-11 attacks.

Of course, it’s possible that most Americans are right -- personal and economic self-denial aren’t necessary because the threat of Islamic extremism is vastly overrated. Al-Qaeda, unlike Nazi Germany or Communist Russia, controls no governments and no sovereign territory. The chances of Muslim extremists actually invading and conquering American territory are virtually zero. Americans may be correct that a volunteer army and peacetime tax rates are more than sufficient to meet a modest threat that’s mostly bottled up in the desolate mountains of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Sacrifice from the American people was purely voluntary on Sept. 10, 2001, and sacrifice remains purely voluntary today. Only when John McCain challenges that particular “September 10th mindset” will he have the credibility to use that epithet against Barack Obama.