Posted on 10/17/2003 9:37:37 AM PDT by WTTed
So another September has come and gone and we have once again been drawn searing memory of the events of September 11th, 2001.
I found myself last month transfixed in front of my televsion, staring again at the images that we all remember but rarely see any more. I watched one show for three hours straight, a PBS special that covered the "life" of the World Trade Center from its conception until its fiery death.
PBS held nothing back in the documentary, showing amidst the scenes of horror pictures of human beings, Americans and others, leaning out of the windows of the twin towers to escape the flame and smoke, and then jumping a thousand feet or more to their deaths. Human beings raining from the sky, a ghastly prelude to the horror of the collapsing towers.
It was almost too painful to watch, but I watched anyway. I watched so I could remember. And as I watched, the cold fury I felt in the days following the attack welled up again in my belly and I watched, feeding my fury, giving it new life, remembering.
All Americans should watch that video. It should be an annual ritual of September 11th, a solemn requirement of citizenship. All Americans should view those men and women standing in those windows, smoke billowing around them, beyond rescue, beyond hope, already in fact dead, ghosts brought back to us as witnesses to that unspeakable outrage.
All Americans should watch those falling human beings, their limbs beating the air on the long descent to the doomed plaza of the twin towers, individuals utterly without hope, forced to jump to their deaths by the rising heat of the fire behind them.
All Americans should watch and ponder and feel the slow anger rise in their bellies.
All should watch because those men and those women are the essential truth of September 11th, they and their comrades who died in the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field the same day. We should all watch and remember and feel that burning rage.
We should watch because it renews our focus on the essential truth of that day, that we were attacked, that American blood was shed on American soil, that we are at war, that the war is not over, that our enemies wish to kill more of us, or all of us.
Many of us seem to have lost that focus, forgotten that truth, and lost that rage in the two years since that day. Many of us seem no longer certain that we are in a war, no longer certain that we do have enemies, would would like to incinerate us, no longer certain who is right or who is wrong.
Many seem to remember September 11th, 2001 as a bad dream that might just go away if we don't have to remember it. And our anger for many of us, turns inward, Americans screaming shrill accusations at other Americans in the midst of a war.
We may be uncertain, but our enemies are not. Radical Muslims celebrated September 11th in many places, including London, where street posters commemorated the deed of the "Magnificent 19" terrorists who brought death to our skies.
An a new tape surfaced from al Qaida, a tape promising that the terrorist attacks to date against America and Americans have been but a series of skirmishes compared to what they have planned, a tape promising death and destruction on an even greater scale.
Our enemies have a cold clarity of purpose that many of us lack. They are quite willing to drive more airplanes into more buildings or to do whatever is necessary to kill great numbers of Americans.
They act with total dedication and resolve while many of us agonize over our every gesture.
That is why it is so important to see and hear again the witnesses of September 11th. Remember them. Remember the dead. And be not sad, but angry. And let their witness clear your eyes of any doubt that lingers there.
James Whorton of Monroe, Louisiana teaches English at Delta High School in Mer Rouge, Louisiana. He is a U.S. Army Reserve retired Major who served 15 years on active duty in the period from 1973 to 1992. He writes a weekly column, primarily about education, which appears in the Bastrop (LA.) Daily Enterprise. You can see his columns and learn more about him at his web site, http://morehouse.nls.k12.la.us/jwhorton.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/980257/posts
No, it shouldn't have.
A temporary suspension/revoking of all visa's to Arab-Islamic countries, a temporary halt to all immigration, a military style mass deportation of all illegal aliens, and the temporary implementation of sealed borders would've been a better course of action before Afghanistan. Atta and his crew, lived, worked, planned and canived in our own backyard for quite awhile before the deed was done.
Which is why the Demoncrats should be very worried about the possible outcome of the next election.
I can imagine pro-Republican ads which depict this carnage followed by Bush's call for action, followed by any of various Demoncrats suggesting that Bush is a liar.
There may be some who suggest that it would be crass to use the 9-11 massacre to advance the Republican cause. But, in fact, it would be noble to use the 9-11 massacre to damage the Democrats who would permit it to happen again.
Someone with more knowledge than I might be able to tell us how many US military are stationed in Saudi Arabia today versus the number when Bush took office.
I believe that we have ceased many operations there. This may be a clear signal to the Saudis that their future behavior might lead to consequences and possibly that their past behavior will soon have consequences.
If it is possible to fight one's enemies singly rather than all at once, then that is a wise course. That seems to be the course that Bush is following.
First our intelligence failed because it did not have enough spies on the ground. We have lots of Christians, and Jewish Arabs that look like the Arabs, and talk Arabic. These should have been recruited and used at any cost. Second, our reliance on oil is simply a big farce. The Arabists use that excuse to make us give in to the Moslem even if they fail to reciprocate our good deed. In addition the interventionists, hawks would also like to have us up to our ears in trouble with these Moslems in order to assure the flow of oil. To that I say BULL! The oil is a world commodity, and these nations need to sell it in order to buy goods, and services. Hence, regardless who purchased that oil (France/Italy/Japan/China/Holland), and what currency was used (the dollar/The Euro/or the Yen) the oil on these ships can go to any port in the world that is need for it, and has the money to pay for it. The reality is THERE IS NO SHORTAGE OF OIL, and even during our hostility to Saddam, he was begging to sell his oil, not hording it. The real reason we are so messed up, is that our politicians are manipulated by special interest groups, and the military machine became a huge bureaucracy, that feeds on itself for profit. For 30 years the Saudis have been treating us unfairly, and buying our politicians to get their fanatic Wahhabism infiltrating our society. The politicians took the millions to the banks, and sold this nation to these barbaric hate bandits. At this point, I still don’t see any sign from Washington that they understand what happened to this nation. They still think that Islam is a religion of peace.
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