9-11 Never Forget Once upon a time, before September 11th, 2001, our country was at peace with other countries and religions despite their previous attacks. We were mighty but scaling down our military and using them almost solely at the behest of the United Nations. All was quiet and peacful in Manhattan. Then...

We were attacked. 20 radical islamist arab men, mostly from Saudia Arabia and all members of Al Queda hijacked 4 airliners and crashed 3 of them into targets selected by their leader. One of those targets was the World Trade Center's Twin Towers.

I was sort of piddling about on my computer at the time and semi-watching Fox News Channel when suddenly Patti Ann Brown was saying something about a terrible accident at the WTC. Of course it was no accident. As I watched this incident unfold I learned that there were still Americans who would step up and make the difficult decisions that showed they were unbowed by this tragedy. Even in the air, against terrible odds, men and women deciphered their intentions and fought back against the hijackers on Flight 93, certainly saving other lives and perhaps our national treasures. Brave people called their loved ones to say goodbye. Others made terrible decisions about the end of their lives. Hundreds of brave men and women in the New York Fire and Police Departments rushed to save them and many lost their lives as well. The skies were empty of commercial aircraft, only the defenders of freedom flew. The nation wept and then we got down to the business of destroying our enemies.

Struck by the many images of patriotism, selfless service, and a country united against this attack we moved to attack our enemies where they lived. Moved to capture their leaders. Moved to bring them to justice. We have succeeded, in part.

We have forced their leaders to hide. We have removed despots who gave them aid and comfort, and we have isolated the sponsors of other terrorists. But we are no longer united. There are among us a number of quislings who would make peace to save our soldiers. There are many who volunteer to be soldiers to kill our enemies. There is a fifth column who would have us abandon the righteous to the evil ones.

Today, a friend told me that we are wrong to be in Iraq because we aren't fighting a people but an idea. I think he understates it. It is an idea, yes, but it is the idea that evil is benign, that we should acquiesce to evil, that we should allow evil to rule us and to make our decisions for us. This is wrong. We must resist evil. We must help others to resist evil. We can never surrender.

Labels: Culture

  ¶ posted by The Editor 8:46 AM