Those of us who are old enough to remember 9/11/01 are able to vividly remember where we were when we heard of the events of that frightful morning. I remember I did not have to work that week. Business was slow, and we were on rotating, mandatory furloughs. This happened to be my week to be off of work. I was in bed when the attacks started. When I awoke, about 9:00 am, I made a phone call to a credit card company (we were having a huge disagreement about a payment). While I was on hold, I heard Tom Brokaw on what was supposed to be the "Hold" music. I was confused. He talked of planes hitting the World Trade Center. Was this for real? I turned on the TV and could not believe what I saw. The World Trade Center was collapsing. What was going on?
It was a beautiful morning with hardly a cloud in the sky in the eastern U.S. Then news started to break of an airplane that flew into the World Trade Center. Was it an accident? Was it terrorism? No one really knew what was going on at the time of the attacks. Then, several minutes later, another plane flew into the other World Trade Center tower. This time, it was captured on camera by many of the news organizations, who were there to cover the first plane. Not long after that, we heard of a plane that flew into the Pentagon. The World Trade Center buildings, under the intense heat, crumbled. Debris is everywhere on the south end of Manhattan. Then we hear of a plane crashing in western Pennsylvania. People started putting the pieces together. We were under attack. But who was doing this? And why did they do this?
In the hours, days, and months that followed, we learned that this attack was made by Al-Qaeda. Osama bin Laden was now Public Enemy #1. We heard stories of the brave men and women who rushed to the World Trade Center and the Pentagon to help save the lives of those who were caught up in the attacks. Many of these first responders perished in the World Trade Center collapse, as they were giving of their life to help others. We heard of the story of Todd Beamer and those on Flight 93 that rushed the terrorists, and forced the plane to crash in Shanksville, PA. We saw Americans of all different ideologies come together in unity to decry the terrorist attacks and celebrate the greatness that is America. We saw what it was like to have a President who would take a stand and tell the enemy that we will find them and deal with them and show them how we, as Americans, deal with our enemies.
For a while, Americans were all but united in our resolve to deal with the enemies that had done this to us. Flags were flying everywhere. Prayer services were being held at church. Members of Congress were able to agree (at that time) on how to deal with terrorists and terrorism. And Congress and the President were able to come to an agreement on how to unite our intelligence agencies, as well as get them to talk to each other. When we invaded Afghanistan to remove the Taliban from power and to break up the Al-Qaeda network, Americans were all but united behind the effort. Even when troops were initially sent into Iraq, the vast majority of Americans were behind the effort.
But what has happened since then? Americans seemed to have come up short in their resolve to defeat the terrorists (which is something that the terrorists had anticipated). As time went on, Americans did not seem to support this effort for the long haul (as if the terrorists were just going to wave the white flag and give up). Americans started to question the effort against terrorists. It is taking too long. There are too many deaths. It costs too much. There are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. America is doing this for oil. Some even went so far as to say that this was an inside job, engineered by the government for some sort of political gain.
Sure, there were speed bumps along the way. The abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib was definitely not a high point. But let's remember that those who participated in those actions were held accountable. Then there was the lack of understanding of our mission for the detainment facility at Guantanamo Bay. The prisoners were treated well, allowed to read the Koran, pray their daily prayers, and fed 3 meals a day (which is much better than their life overseas).
There was the issue of enhanced interrogation, used on only the most dangerous prisoners that we had in custody. People said we lost the moral high ground for using these techniques, because this is not how America treats its prisoners. Well, I have a very big problem with that line of thinking. First and foremost, terrorists are not covered under the Geneva Convention, or more importantly, under our Constitution. Therefore, the rules are different. In order to protect the lives of American citizens, we needed to get as much information as we could about potential terrorist attacks. If that means making the lives of some dangerous Al-Qaeda leaders uncomfortable in the process, then we needed to do this. The moral high ground was to protect the lives of the American people. After all, this is the primary role of the government in the first place.
We've learned that Americans have short attention spans. While there was a tremendous unity in the months after the attacks, that gradually started to wear off. There was a segment in America that thought we had caused the attacks, because we thought we were so much better than any one else on earth. There is a segment that thinks we actually planned and carried out that attacks. Many liberals started to question the Republican President. They did not like what they felt was American Imperialism. Who were we to force our beliefs on the world? Many Americans have moved on with life, stopping to remember that attacks every year on 9/11, then putting those thoughts in the back of their mind until the next 9/11 rolls around.
Some Americans became embarrassed by our role as the sole superpower. Who are we to police the world? Had they forgotten it was the U.S.A. that was attacked and we have a right to defend ourselves? They were embarrassed by a President that set out a clear missions on how the U.S. would try to defeat terrorism. He had a firm grasp of right and wrong, good and evil, and he knew that evil needed to be defeated in this war. Unfortunately, there were many collegiate professors who thought it was their duty to try to indoctrinate students and teach them that America repressed the poor and needy in this world, that we mistreat the Islamic people of this world. It was the likes of these intellectual elites, liberals in Congress, and a growing portion of the media that it was the U.S. that was responsible for these attacks, because we have created a hostile environment, ripe for terrorist attacks against us.
Due to the abuses at Abu Ghraib, and the prisoners being held in Guantanamo Bay, we were told that we were encouraging attacks on the U.S. However, this line of thinking has always confused me. There was no Abu Ghraib when terrorists attacked the USS Cole. Those places were not in existence when we were attacked on 9/11. So what egregious act had the U.S. committed in order to solicit such a serious attack on 9/11?
We were told that Islam is a peaceful religion. This could not be further from the truth. Their goal is world domination. Sure, when they are trying to get a foothold in a community or in a country, they do their best to blend in. But eventually, they become stronger in their resolve. They become more dominant. Why is that people who feel like outcasts and become angry at the country (and at the world) convert to Islam? It is because that religion offers what they want - a chance to act aggressively against their enemies. Sure, there may be peaceful Muslims who want no part of this intifada against freedom. But the terrorists that we face espouse the religion of Islam and its teachings. They celebrated on the days of the terrorist attacks. Imams around the globe teach hatred in their mosques. This religion is not peaceful.
We are told that we need to allow a mosque to be built close to the World Trade Center sight. If we do not agree, then we are Islamaphobes and intolerant. The intolerance is really with those who want to build this mosque so close to the World Trade Center sight. Yes, we have freedom of religion and you are free to worship as you see fit. But that does not mean a mosque needs to be built so close to Ground Zero. This is not the place to build a "monument" to a religion whose beliefs led some of its adherents to kill so many people on that fateful morning.
Evil exists in this world. There will be a constant struggle between right and wrong, good and evil, until the end of this world. Many people fail to grasp this concept. In the age of secular humanism, people believe in a truth that is relative - who are we to tell people that their beliefs are right or wrong (after all, there are still people on this earth who will not declare that Hitler was evil for killing as many Jews as he did). Much of this is due to the secular humanist doing his best to take God out of society. They will tell you that if there was a God, why did He allow the 9/11 attacks to happen? If God was good, He would have stopped it.
Well, I cannot say why God allowed the attacks to happen. I know that He did not cause them to happen. Our God does not celebrate when we kill other people (as Islam teaches). Our God has explicitly told us not to kill others. I do know that it is a belief in God that has allowed many, many people to cope with this tragedy over the last 10 years. It is their faith and trust in an all-wise, all-knowing, all-caring God that has comforted them and given them the strength that they need on a daily basis.
So, where do we go from here? We, as a nation, need to turn back to God. That may not be easy, but that is what we need to do. We need to humble ourselves, and pray, and seek His face, and turn from our wicked, self-serving ways (II Chronicles 7:14). We cannot defeat evil without God's help.
Let us find some comforts in the words of President Bush, which were delivered to a joint session of Congress, and to a large national audience, on 9/20/11.
"Terrorists attacked a symbol of American prosperity; they did not touch its source. America is successful because of the hard work and creativity and enterprise of our people. These were the true strengths of our economy before September 11th, and they are our strengths today. And finally, please continue praying for the victims of terror and their families, for those in uniform and for our great country. Prayer has comforted us in sorrow and will strengthen us for the journey ahead.....Freedom and fear are at war. The advance of human freedom, the great achievement of our time and the great hope of every time, now depends on us. Our nation, this generation, will lift the dark threat of violence from our people and our future. We will rally the world to this cause by our efforts, by our courage. We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail.....The course of this conflict is not known, yet its outcome is certain. Freedom and fear, justice and cruelty, have always been at war, and we know that God is not neutral between them.....In all that lies before us, may God grant us wisdom, and may He watch over the United States of America."
