Saturday - September 11, 2004

Three Years After

It has been three years since we were attacked on our own soil; three years since nineteen madmen flew four airplanes loaded with jet fuel into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania; three years since we found ourselves involved in a war we did not start, did not want and did not expect. Over three thousand lives were lost that day. They were innocent civilians simply going about their lives, not soldiers in a war. No, those people who died that day were just plain folks going to work to support their families and live the American dream. The tragedy we all felt that day still lives with us. The families of those who died still have to live with their loss and most of them are probably still wondering .... why? I can’t give them an answer. I can only give them my prayers and a solemn promise that the tragedy we suffered will not be forgotten.

That is one of the reasons this blog was started. Last March we held a contest and asked everyone to submit essays describing how they felt and what happened to them on that tragic day. We all read the essays and voted for the best. However, we were all winners for refusing to forget the hurt that was done to us. I urge all of you to go read those essays and remember. They are posted on-line here and are a permanent part of this blog site (See “Required Reading: Memories Of 9/11” in the right sidebar).

After 9/11 this country was united and we all stood together against the enemy that would destroy us. We were proud to be Americans and we demonstrated to the world that we could “take a licking and keep on ticking” as the commercial says. On that day we were all stunned and knocked down with our grief over our lost friends. Our world was shattered. But we got up off our back, stood tall and started to rebuild, recover and go after the bad guys. The evildoers, as President Bush called them .. and they were evildoers, nothing more and nothing less, did not succeed. They were small, narrow-minded men bent on killing Americans, their hatred of us was the only thing they lived for. They really didn’t need a reason. They just hated us and what we stand for .. freedom. Their world is a dark one where women are abused and considered second-class citizens. They cherish war against people who do not believe as they do. They burn with hatred of all things that are different from themselves. They were, and still are, insane madmen with no goal in life except death for their cause. We were an easy target because we thought we were safe behind our Atlantic and Pacific walls. We found out that no ocean is wide enough to keep out determined madmen.

Since that day, however, thanks to President Bush and a majority of Congress we have (1) raised our shields here at home and (2) taken the war to the enemy. In both we are succeeding. There have been no further attacks on American soil in the last three years and we have done it without locking the country down or instituting harsh measures on the American people. Yes, we have to go through that ridiculous routine at the security check-ins at airports but other than that we have not really lost any of our basic freedoms that a declaration of martial law might have taken away. There have been no internment camps, no suspension of habeus corpus, no rationing and no spying into citizen’s private lives as has happened in previous wars.  No, we all have gone about our lives and trusted our government to take care of the problem and keep us safe. Because of that attitude, the economic recovery has progressed and things are getting better. Our law enforcement agencies have quietly done a magnificent job protecting us from our enemies while we keep America strong by doing what we’ve always done .. go to work each day and provide for ourselves and our families, interact with each other socially and politically, and keep dreaming the American dream.

On the external front against the evildoers overseas, progress is even better. Our troops, in cooperation with good people in the Middle East who also want to be free and safe, have cleaned out the pest hole in Afghanistan where the perpetrators of 9/11 had created a safe base from which to launch the attacks. The Taliban has been routed, removed from power and the Al Qaeda terrorist group has been destroyed and dispersed, their funding removed and most of their “soldiers” killed or captured. Their leaders are either dead, captured or on the run. Today there is a democracy in Afghanistan and national elections will take place soon for the first time in that country’s history.

In Iraq we have deposed a tyrant who was guilty of murdering millions of his own people and who started two major wars with his neighbors. This madman who used chemical and biological weapons not only against his enemies but against his own people was dragged from a “spider hole” stinking, bearded and covered with lice after eluding our troops for months. Now he will stand trial before his people. Those people will soon have a democratically elected government. They are already on their way to building the first democracy in that region. Sadly, we have lost just over 1,000 soldiers in that war in Afghanistan and Iraq and, I might add, every one of those troops was somebody’s son or daughter. They will be missed. But what has their sacrifice brought us? Yes, we are definitely safer without Saddam Hussein in power. He had defied the entire world for decades, sought weapons of mass destruction and announced his hatred of not only America but his neighboring Arab states as well, starting costly wars with both Iran and Kuwait. Our troops sacrificed their lives to give freedom to the Iraqi people and rid the world of the menace of Saddam Hussein. In that they have succeeded. There is still work to do though if we wish to make sure they didn’t die in vain. Other evildoers who don’t want to see free men and women in the Middle East are hard at work in Iraq trying to destroy the new democracy there. They have to be stopped .. and they will be stopped. How? One thing that Americans have always had in large quantities is determination We will see this thing through, come hell or high water.

Which brings me to the reason for this editorial. This is an election year in America and as usual the political partys are fighting it out between themselves over who should be the next President. Foreigners may look at the divisiveness, arguing and infighting and see America splitting apart. Wrong! This is just our normal show that the politicians put on for the American people every four years. They entertain us with their rhetoric, accusations, mud-slinging, attack ads, etc., etc. for several months, then the American people go to the polls and freely elect the best man (or woman) for the job. Then the politicians go back to their jobs that we assigned to them for another four years. It’s a never-ending cycle because America is a never-ending work in progress.

So to our enemies we, the American people want them to contemplate that fact. America is a never-ending work in progress. Why? Well, let me allow the men who created this country over two centuries ago to explain it to them and the entire world. This is what we are and what we believe ....

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Posted by The Skipper     on 09/11/2004 at 08:25 AM   
Filed Under: • Patriotism •  
• Comments (5) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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