Updated (again) and bumped from 9/11/12: I just reread this – angrily. For you see, our President, whose main responsibility is to the Constitution, the nation, and its people – to keep them safe. Yet, this President, whose main policy is Determined Weakness, has no problem in using the might of the United States to protect, and worse, to ally this country with those whose hatred of this country cause the Falling Man to your left. The MSM won’t show this picture, and no, they won’t make the explicit connection between Muslim Jihadis and the death of thousands. For many of our fellow countrymen, death came quickly. Twelve years later, I cannot fathom the fear, the emptiness, the futility, and worse, the aloneness of those that chose that last 30 seconds of their lives in jumping. They stared at the Death that was coming from above, below and from behind – and cheat it but only in that they chose a different Death.
Never forget – and never forgive. No, Mr. President Obama, too many Americans have died too soon to have us aid those that caused Death to visit our shores simply because our Founders believed in the exceptional (and radical) idea that we can be self-governing in all things and to live our lives in ways we individually believe best. But it seems, Mr. President, that you reject this idea (as do all Progressives) for your actions in Benghazi, in Libya, in Egypt, and desiring to do so again in Syria, you have thrown in with those that believe otherwise. Jihadis, Islamists, Muslim Brotherhood; at each and every turn you have shown your preference for them over those that love our Constitution and its ideals.
I was once asked what I would be willing to die for (Three Questions Posed and Answered) – my answer was yes and both my sons went to war (Iraq and Afghanistan) of their own free will. Other than your family, Mr. President, would you be willing to die for the United States? No, not via an assassination attempt (God forbid) which is the possible lot of all Presidents; but in circumstances other. The Falling Man did, in the circumstances in which he found himself – a casualty of the war declared by Totalitarians on Liberty and Freedom. And you want us to defend them?
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11 years later – still a memory seared for some, for others it is starting (or already is) a more vague memory. Not for me and not for the ‘Grok. Again and always, we grieve for the victims of radical Islamic fanaticism that hate us, the US, for no other reason that we are Americans with freedoms they deem anti-Islamic.
An asymmetric war was launched that day was finally recognized that day – a war that had been already happening for years (going back to the first Twin Tower attack – and before). Shock ruled the day – this was the first time that America had been massively attacked by foreign forces since World War II and the first time on the mainland since 1812. And, just like with Pearl Harbor, with no warning. Unlike Pearl Harbor, in which the targets were military, this was an act of terror against mostly innocent civilians (the attack on the Pentagon not withstanding).
- This was a war of psychology: “we can hit you using your own assets at a time we decide”.
- This was a war on American finance: “we can hit you at an iconic place of American wealth”.
- This was a war on classical Western liberalism: “we utterly reject the premise that individuals can decide what is best for themselves and that laws can be made by men. Allahu Akbar!”
In many ways they were successful – but failed as well. They see Americans as weak with a decandant, doddering culture that should have folded like the proverbial deck of wet cards; there were (and still are) those Americans that wail, throw ashes into the air, and grovel “we caused this so we must understand them and make amends” (the normal suspects of the “Blame America First Club”). But the majority of Americans, once the initial shock faded, got that glinty-eyed look on their faces and refused to cave and the process of routing Al Queda and the Taliban began.
No matter your take on the time since, with the Iraq War and the Afghanistan War, it is just the truth that we have not have had another similar attack on our soil since (even as the conventional wisdom at the time was that it would only be a short time until the inevitable were to happen). It has shown us the shortcomings of our system (certain aspects of the Patriot Act and now NDAA) but also the best – not only our military and intelligence people but ordinary people who ran towards danger to help others, who put themselves between those that hate us and the rest of their countrymen – and have paid high prices for doing so or perished themselves.
We will never know the fear, the dread, and ultimate desperation on the part those that jumped (the Falling Man was not the only one). We can only be resolute to keep such attacks from happening again – we must continue to believe in the NH motto of “Live Free or Die”; we cannot bow to either another country militarily or to a pernicious political ideology masquerading as a religion that purports to be about freedom while requiring an absolute fealty to a iron-clad code of life with no freedom at all (Shar’iah Law). This will continue to require much from us and our institutions, as freedom isn’t free, and the fight to keep it will be everlasting – and personal (both my sons, as regular readers know, have served in in our military with the Eldest serving in Iraq (Marines) and the Youngest in Afghanistan (101st Airborne).
They were not sent – they went. They knew that the price of freedom could be very high indeed. It is fitting, this day here in NH, that we have the opportunity to choose folks to represent us at the local, State, and Federal levels. May God help us to choose rightly so as to protect our God given Rights that mortals wish to take from us. May that image above not be for naught.
