[Congressman Billybob]

Thought FReepers would share the pleasure of a FReeper article in the mainstream media.

[Argus]

This piece is right on the money. If the passengers on Fl. 93 had been of a different type - say the Susan Sontag Book Club or the UC Berkeley Debating Team - the White House or Capitol would be a heap of smoking ruins now. This country is lucky to still have citizens of the calibre of Todd Beamer and company, but when every institution in our national life, from public grade schools on up, seems determined to leach all the initiative, patriotism and self-reliance out of our people, how long will we continue to have them?

[Psycho_Bunny]

Like the leaders of France: No need to pose the question. You are cheese-eating surrender monkeys.

[TonyInOhio]

Well written, and with a punch. Thanks for sharing it here, John.

Tony

[Cicero]

When I saw "cheese-eating surrender monkeys," I knew we were in FreeRepublic territory for sure.

[GWfan]

Bump. I loved it.

[martian_22]

I have a sort of political what if.

What if our administration had the information and opportunity to intercept 19 Saudi nationals at Boston Airport on 911. They were arrested and found only to have a few box cutters. I think the political outcry of profiling, etc. would have been deafening.

How many of these type of events have already been dicouraged or thwarted? We will never know.

Thanks for the reminder. Bump.

[RAY]

Thanks for the post!

[MattinNJ]

A powerful, lucid, and brilliant article. Magnificent.

[GaryMontana]

Huge BUMP

[ladyinred]

Excellent. When will the book be available? I don't want to miss it, if this is an example of your writing. Thanks for sharing this, and all of your talents with us here on FR.

[ladyinred]

Ping for an excellent article.

[Man of the Right]

Cheese-eating surrender monkeys. I'm going to use this phrase until the French start calling themselves that. This guy can write!

[JulieRNR21]

BRAVO....one of your very best columns.....I'll be sending it to all my cyberfriends!

[sixmil]

What would you have done if you were on Flight 93?

I would have wet my pants. I can only hope I would have been as brave as those souls.

If the passengers on Fl. 93 had been of a different type - say the Susan Sontag Book Club or the UC Berkeley Debating Team - the White House or Capitol would be a heap of smoking ruins now.

This is a terrible thing to say, but I would trade either WTC tower for the Capitol. I think our country would be far better off.

[nopardons]

Great article !

[glorygirl]

This immediately reminded me of an essay I read in a religious magazine many years ago entitled "What the Blind Man Did Not Say." Couldn't find it on google.

Essentially, it listed all the things the blind man on the roadside might have said to Christ when Christ asked him why he was calling his name.

The blind man did NOT say he was actually afraid to see.

The blind man did NOT say other people might get angry if he could see.

The blind man did NOT say it wouldn't be fair if he could see and other people remained blind.

The blind man did NOT say, on second thought, he would be more comfortable remaining blind.

He simply said he wanted to see, and was healed.

[BluH2o]

Interesting perspective ... however, it's my firm belief Flt. 93, which was still 30 minutes away from Washington, would have been shot out of the air by military aircraft.
That, of course, would have happened much closer to Washington,
in a densly populated area, almost sure to cause casualties on the ground. The brave souls on board Flt. 93 took matters into their own hands and the rest is history ...

[Alouette]

This morning, a group of alert Israeli commuters on their way to work in Tel Aviv spotted a man who looked suspicious attempt to board the bus.

The passengers rushed the man, grabbed him and threw him off the bus. He blew himself up, killing one Israeli standing at the bus stop and slightly wounding a dozen others.

If not for the quick thinking of the bus passengers and the driver who slammed the door shut so that the terrorist could not attempt to re-board, a major massacre was prevented.

The loss of even one innocent life is a tragedy, of course. But what would have happened if this was a U.S. bus? Would the would-be bomber complain to the media and sue the bus company and all the passengers for "racial profiling" and "discrimination"?

[foreshadowed at waco]

Flight 93 was mentioned as the turning point for American political thinking on a show called Wall Street Journal Editorial Board which airs on Fridays at 9PM and again at midnight. It's on CNBC. Great round table discussion by Paul Gigot and four other WSJ editorial writers. Said that Flight 93 meant that Americans were willing to fight back and turn the tables on the enemy--said that's why we are willing to go into Iraq despite appeasement arguments--we have begun to see that we must connect the dots to thwart terrorism--we 'get' it thanks to Todd Beamer and Co.

Great article BTW.

[txhurl]

If the Congressional building and the White house had been hit, the whole freakin' planet would be glowing.