My boss, a major, came and got me to see the first tower burning. He asked if this had ever happened before - I said yes, once in bad weather in the mid-1940s. He then asked if this was an accident - I said no way in H. What pilot would deliberately fly into a building in broad daylight.
About this time the second aircraft hit. I turned to him and said we are now at war and have between two and six years to win it. He asked why and I told him that it would take that long to turn the war into a political battle within the US just like Vietnam.
I wish today that I wasn't right on both counts.
“About this time the second aircraft hit. I turned to him and said we are now at war and have between two and six years to win it. He asked why and I told him that it would take that long to turn the war into a political battle within the US just like Vietnam.”
If it were only a geographic and political battle, you’d be right. But this is an ideological battle, like communism—only worse. Islam is more dangerous. I felt if we could fight against communism for 50 years, we could do the same against radical Islam. I expected the struggle to take 20 years. The first 7 years went far better than I expected—I expected more attacks at the US and more US soldiers’ death.
The last few years under Obama, again, I’ve been pleasantly surprised. He hasn’t been as bad as I feared. Still, he has damaged our country and military position.
We’ll be lucky if we’re done in another ten years. We need another Reagan.