Six
months ago today, all of us once again had our lives changed forever by one
of those defining moments where – if asked – we could tell where we were and
what we were doing. I was at my desk with the television set to CBS
NEWS that fateful 9-11 morning. I immediately called a friend of mine on
Wall Street – and got his voice mail; I called his home in Connecticut; his
wife answered and I asked her where he was. She said work and I said he wasn’t
there to which she said he must not have arrived yet.
To this day, I still remember what I told her next. “Call him on his cell
phone and tell him to get off the train at the next stop. Turn him the hell
around and get him home – now!” She asked me why and I told her what happened.
Not wanting to believe what I had told her was true, I told her to turn on the
television. She asked what channel, and I told her Channel 2. The next thing
I knew, the second plane came into view on the screen and when she saw that
one hit Tower #2, she then knew it was indeed a sad reality.
I spent the day somewhat numbed and saddened for the loss of life, yet not
at all surprised on the grounds that holes in so many areas of American security
and defense were of such magnitude that an incident like this was not so much
asking, but in fact begging to happen. As Editor for The
American Partisan, I immediately sent out a flash priority e-mail to all
my writers and other contributors asking for articles and reactions, and they
came in with their various reactions expressed in their columns, in addition
to writing my own column DEFCON
ONE, which also ran the following day.
One of the happiest things that have come from this tragedy is that the death
toll from the WTC has been reduced from the high-end number of 6729 as determined
by city officials on September 24th to a current count of 2672, with 158 classified
as missing – some of whom are certainly dead, some probably mistakenly on the
list, some possibly duplicated and last but not least, some folks who are out
there trying to fake their deaths for whatever the reason may be.
The resulting action that came from the attack propelled the United States
into “Operation Enduring Freedom” and with it something others have not been
able to do. The British weren’t able to tame Afghanistan some 100+ years ago.
The Soviets left Afghanistan in 1999 after 10 unsuccessful years of occupation.
The United States on the other hand was able to essentially drive the Taliban
out of their caves in 83 days. This resounding success on the battlefield has
allowed those Afghans who suffered most at the hands of the Taliban to return
home and start rebuilding their country.
One of the other benefits that came out of the attacks of 9-11 was a resurgence
of patriotism on the part of the American people – my only hope is that this
is more than just temporary and that the lessons learned from this attack don’t
disappear the next time their cars are due for an oil change.
With six months having passed since our day of infamy, America can never afford
to let her guard down again. Chances are this generation won’t (at least I hope
so), nor will the next one, but the one after will unless either another disaster
of this magnitude occurs or our children and grandchildren are properly trained
in the art of art of vital national self-defense. To that end, it is vital that
regardless of whomever the occupant of the White House is, America needs to
not only rebuild its national defense that was completely gutted under Clinton’s
watch and which fostered an environment in which a disaster of this magnitude
was allowed to happen, but it needs to be constantly maintained and strengthened
– to include the use of a space-based missile defense shield system. Another
way to help this would be to make the Secretary of Defense post a ten-year position
a TEN-YEAR position in much the same manner as is done the Director of the FBI.
This will keep a level of consistency within DoD that will make for a more conducive
environment for troop morale and subsequently, retention as well.
If the EU, the Russians or the Red Chinese don’t like it, then to hell with
them. The United States is a sovereign nation and not a lackey puppet of any
other entity or of the United Nations, which as far as I’m concerned is another
parasitic black-hole organization that can also go straight to hell without
passing “GO” and without collecting another American taxpayer dollar. All the
EU wants to do is tax American ingenuity, drive and ambition at their confiscatory
levels because they know they cannot compete with either the USA or Canada.
The UN wants to do the same and as for the Russians and the Red Chinese, neither
are to be trusted and according to a report
in yesterday’s Los Angeles Times, a classified report from the Pentagon has
indicated that the Bush administration is drawing up plans that will allow for
the use of nuclear weapons against those who would unleash the brand of destruction
that we as a nation and a people suffered six months ago.
Achille Lauro
As
I said last Tuesday,
we are now at the point of either kill or be killed. It is no longer enough
for these terrorists to kill Americans abroad like they did to wheelchair-bound
Leon Klinghoffer aboard the Achille Lauro (left) in the Mediterranean
back in 1985; they are now coming to our shores and killing us here at home
– on our shores. We need to nip this in the bud and fast. We need to be on our
guard, yet in a manner so as to be neither paranoid nor to detract from the
quality of life or the joy in living we experienced prior to that fateful day
six months ago. We must meet these cowards with complete brutality and with
an absolute totality of force. Our homes and our families must be protected
and we must do whatever it takes.
John Walker Lindh
Ours
is and was a nation born in blood. People such as these terrorists are among
those that are referred to when Thomas Jefferson stated, “The tree of
liberty must be watered with the blood of patriots and traitors.” These
terrorists are no better than traitorous scum the likes of Aldrich Ames, Robert
Hanssen, John Walker and his spy ring (1982), Jonathan Pollard or American Taliban
John Walker Lindh (pictured, right) that we have to deal with now. Each of them
have been involved in treasonous actions that have led to the deaths of either
innocent Americans or Americans who were serving their country in the line of
duty.
John Ashcroft
For these crimes, these people should have had to pay with their lives. For
Mr. Lindh, he should be strapped to a gurney, but I doubt that Attorney General
John Ashcroft (left) has the stones to ask for the death penalty. Were Lindh
a homeboy from the projects and not a bored rich white kid from Marin County
with the sob story of the ‘self-absorbed divorced parents garbage’, you can
bet the death penalty would be the ONLY option on the federal
table. It’s that pure – it’s that simple, any anybody in Washington with an
IQ over 70 knows it. If you commit the ultimate betrayal, you pay the ultimate
price – end of discussion. What I can’t understand is why everyone else is belaboring
the point.
For those seeking to understand where I am coming from, it goes like this:
Call me old-fashioned if you will, I really don’t care and I offer no apology
for it whatsoever, but the fact is I believe – make that I know the Constitution
to be an inspired document prepared by wise men who were raised up by the Lord
for that very purpose, and that their placement in the spectrum of time was
no accident any more than your presence or mine here today to be accidental.
Each of us not only has a life, but as a friend of mine in Delaware put it so
beautifully and so perfectly a number of years ago, a destiny to fulfill.
With the upheaval of our lives in the six months since 9-11, perhaps we have
looked more closely within ourselves and in the process seen what’s really important.
Perhaps we have seen what destiny we have to fulfill – especially as it pertains
to our family and friends, for when you get right down to it, that has been
the greatest lesson and legacy of 9-11 – learning what’s really important in
one’s life.
Ronald Reagan
The terrorists plan to weaken America with their cowardly attack failed of
course, for it had the exact opposite effect. Like the Japanese of World War
II, they will come to the conclusion that they have awakened a sleeping giant.
While I do not favor the use of nuclear weapons to settle differences, I nonetheless
cannot preclude the option if that is what it takes to bring this madness to
an end.
If
that is what does indeed take, then so be it, for in this case, the ends will
justify the means. Ronald Reagan campaigned on the slogan of “Peace
through Strength”. He put his money where his mouth was, and because of it,
we are a much stronger and better nation today because of and due to his vision,
commitment, love of country and also his ability to look beyond the here and
now. For that, he will indeed go down as perhaps our greatest President.
His health may no longer be what it once was, but how about we win one more
for the Gipper?
Timothy Rollins
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Photo of World Trade Center Tower #1 courtesy of the Associated Press
