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Eight years after the shock and pain of the 9/11 attacks, the United States has not yet put all things right.

Osama bin Laden and others in his terrorist organization have eluded capture, most of them likely hiding in mountainous regions of Pakistan beyond the reach of lawful authority.

Taliban fighters hold sway over portions of Afghanistan, battling viciously against stepped-up military efforts by U.S. and NATO forces.

And even more U.S. troops serve in Iraq, an unfortunate diversion for more than six years.

But the terrorists can't claim victory. They inflicted a massive, devastating blow eight years ago today, taking 3,000 lives, knocking down the Twin Towers and damaging the Pentagon. If that day's accounting was reckoned by destruction alone, they won.

It wasn't. As painful as the losses remain in our collective memory, they aren't the sum of 9/11. What stand out instead are the images of courage and sacrifice: the firefighters charging into the inferno to save lives while risking their own; the police officers rushing people to safety; the heroes of United Flight 93, including Greensboro's Sandy Bradshaw, whose struggle against hijackers forced down the plane before it could complete its deadly mission to Washington, D.C. In a fitting ceremony Wednesday, a plaque was unveiled in the Capitol in honor of the crew members and passengers, who will always be remembered by their rallying cry, "Let's roll."

Other Americans rallied, too. Many enlisted in the armed forces, including a professional football player named Pat Tillman. He gave up a lucrative career and then his life as a special forces soldier tragically killed in Afghanistan. Others, less famous, did the same.

President George W. Bush inspired the country with his steely resolve following 9/11, winning nearly universal support for an initially successful invasion of Afghanistan, which ousted the Taliban. The 2003 incursion into Iraq, however, divided Americans, exacted a heavy price and shifted the focus from Afghanistan. Now, President Barack Obama is drawing down troop levels in Iraq and redeploying forces to Afghanistan, but prospects for a favorable outcome there are uncertain at best.

Along the way, the country has confronted dilemmas testing our fundamental values: How much freedom must be curtailed in the name of national security? How should we treat captured terrorists? What methods are appropriate when trying to extract vital information? To what legal protections are detainees entitled when they are neither ordinary criminals nor prisoners of war?

We've made mistakes in dealing with these questions, some serious. We haven't yet answered them all. In some ways, we seem to be as far from resolving these challenges today as we were eight years ago.

But there is this good news: It hasn't happened again. To the dedicated men and women responsible for the country's safety, as to the heroes of 9/11, we owe an eternal debt.