So here we are, eight years after Muslim terrorists killed 3,000 U.S. citizens on American soil.
I remember what I was doing that morning, as am sure most of us do. I was on my way to work, late as usual, sitting at a stoplight with the radio on, when I heard that an airplane had crashed into one of the towers. There was talk initially about a possible attack but I wrote it off as some kind of accident. When the second plane hit and then the Pentagon was struck, there was no doubt as to what was going on.
There were some service calls I had to take care of in Broken Arrow that day. I drove past the service stations with lines of cars at the pumps and prices around $5 – $7 a gallon. It was a gorgeous day with blue skies and white fluffy clouds. I did my work and drove back home, thinking how strange it was that, for the first time in decades, there were no planes in the sky except for a few military jets.
The country was united behind our president at first. The Taliban refused to hand over people involved in the attack, so we took over Afghanistan and installed a Middle East version of democracy in the process. Saddam was playing games with the U.N. about his WMDs, so we acted upon an existing U.N. security resolution and deposed him.
It didn’t take long for the leftists and socialists among the democrats to politicize the war. As casualties mounted, the war in Iraq was labeled a war for oil. Slogans like “Bush lied, people died” appeared on bumper stickers. The truth became subservient to the needs of liberal politicians.
I remember seeing a news magazine in the racks, I believe it was Time, with a close-up of a woman in a niqab staring into the camera. The headline was “Why Do They Hate Us?” I was angry. What kind of question was this? Thousands dead at the hands of Muslim terrrorists and we are supposed to look deeply into our souls to see what the mothers, daughters, fathers, and sons who died on 911 should have done differently to change the minds of a bunch of murderers, blinded by faith in their religion? What a load of b.s.
There were apologists who essentially said the America was evil and had it coming all along. People like Ward Churchill, who called the victims of 911 “little Eichmanns,” comparing them to the Nazi officer who faithfully carried out his orders to exterminate millions of Jews. Holier-than-thou leftists like Churchill need to have the courage of their convictions so they can walk up to the parents who lost their children on 911 and tell them that America had it coming.
Van Jones, the communist who Obama chose to be his green jobs czar, held a vigil for the victims of 911 the following day. The vigil was also to mark his solidarity with the victims of American imperialism worldwide. The United States is a tyrant, you see, and in the words of Obama’s pastor Jeremiah Wright, its chickens had come home to roost.
When the war in Iraq really was over, at least so far as anyone could tell, the newspapers didn’t tell us about it. The traditional media outlets were silent. The war that democrat senator Harry Reid said was lost, had been won. Bush’s surge (so long in coming) worked.
And where are we now? Obama has a special prosecutor investigating those who helped keep us safe for the last eight years. It seems our president can seldom venture overseas without apologizing for America’s superpower status in the world. The man cheapened 911 today by asking for what is essentially a community work day on behalf of those killed in the attacks. Americans come together in times of need, not when some community organizer, full of hubris and false ideals, issues a dictate.
On this 9-11, what we need most of all is a little hope. And never to forget.
