[george76]

Donald Rumsfeld found a nice historical echo in his speech at Arlington Cemetery to commemorate September 11.

... In the dark days of our revolution, George Washington's army had been decimated in New York. A British admiral told three of our founding fathers that the revolutionaries could have peace if only they would reject the Declaration of Independence and give up their rebellion. To many it might have seemed a tempting offer. Prospects for victory seemed bleak. But those patriots refused. Their army rallied. And our country's independence was secured.

That date was Sept. 11, ... 1776. As it happens the place where those patriots refused to surrender is just minutes from the site of the World Trade Center.

Today, a vastly more vicious adversary seeks our surrender. Once again, we will refuse. And once again, our forces have rallied.

Today, history is being written by the valiant men and women of America's armed forces, and by determined citizens who will do all they can to keep other children from experiencing the heartbreak and terror of Sept. 11.

So today let us recommit ourselves to continuing history's great and necessary task. And to continuing to pursue these enemies until they pose no threat to free people.

[BlackElk]

September 11 has a long and mostly interesting and laudable history (excepting the obvious evils of 2001). For one thing, it is the date of either the successful defense of Vienna by Jan Sobiewski against the Muslim invaders or more likely the naval battle of Lepanto against the Muslims (the end of Muslim naval power). I forget which, but whichever battle it was, the anniversary is a probable motive for the Islamofascisti to choose 9/11 to attack us.

Other 9/11 highlights include: 1973 when Chilean Communist President Salvador Allende committed suicide by firing his machine gun at Augusto Pinochet's forces who restored Chile's traditional non-communist civilization during a brief interlude of military restoration of order. 1970 (?) when Prince Sihanouk of Cambodia (a footstool for Marxist-Leninists) was overthrown by Lon Nol. There are others as well. These two were particularly important strategic victories although Cambodia eventually fell into the communist swamp again. As the late Ambassador Jeanne Kirkpatrick so eloquently explained in full book-length treatment, authoritarianism is preferable to totalitarianism because totalitarianism tends to be a permanent enslavement as authoritarianism does not. Freedom is, of course, far preferable to authoritarianism and still farther preferable to totalitarianism.