Posted on 09/23/2013 10:20:46 AM PDT by Starman417
In wake of the terrorist attack Saturday that claimed 68 lives at the famous Nairobi shopping mall, and in wake of the 12th anniversary of 9/11, I revisited President Bush's September 20, 2001 speech to a Joint Session of Congress:
On September the 11th, enemies of freedom committed an act of war against our country. Americans have known wars -- but for the past 136 years, they have been wars on foreign soil, except for one Sunday in 1941. Americans have known the casualties of war -- but not at the center of a great city on a peaceful morning. Americans have known surprise attacks -- but never before on thousands of civilians. All of this was brought upon us in a single day -- and night fell on a different world, a world where freedom itself is under attack.Americans have many questions tonight. Americans are asking: Who attacked our country? The evidence we have gathered all points to a collection of loosely affiliated terrorist organizations known as al Qaeda. They are the same murderers indicted for bombing American embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, and responsible for bombing the USS Cole.
Al Qaeda is to terror what the mafia is to crime. But its goal is not making money; its goal is remaking the world -- and imposing its radical beliefs on people everywhere.
The terrorists practice a fringe form of Islamic extremism that has been rejected by Muslim scholars and the vast majority of Muslim clerics -- a fringe movement that perverts the peaceful teachings of Islam. The terrorists' directive commands them to kill Christians and Jews, to kill all Americans, and make no distinction among military and civilians, including women and children.
This group and its leader -- a person named Osama bin Laden -- are linked to many other organizations in different countries, including the Egyptian Islamic Jihad and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan. There are thousands of these terrorists in more than 60 countries. They are recruited from their own nations and neighborhoods and brought to camps in places like Afghanistan, where they are trained in the tactics of terror. They are sent back to their homes or sent to hide in countries around the world to plot evil and destruction.
The leadership of al Qaeda has great influence in Afghanistan and supports the Taliban regime in controlling most of that country. In Afghanistan, we see al Qaeda's vision for the world.
The Ron Paulistinian foreign policy worldview ridicules the notion that they "hate us for our freedoms", believing Michael Schuer's perspective to be far more sophisticated (I find his books useful- but he's still just a man with an opinion like everyone else) and President Bush's to be "simplistic". There is merit in both perspectives- the belief that American foreign policy and presence and influence in the Arabian peninsula are at fault (as if radical, puritanical Islamic fundamentalists need American foreign policy as an excuse to attack non-Muslims- and Muslims not deemed sufficiently Islamic- all over the world); and the belief that they hate us for our way of life- our freedoms (the father of al Qaeda theology, Sayyid Qutb, received education in the States and was horrified and repulsed by our "decadent" lifestyle and cultural freedoms).
President Bush goes on to cite specific evidence of just how Islamic fundamentalists do hate "freedom":
Afghanistan's people have been brutalized -- many are starving and many have fled. Women are not allowed to attend school. You can be jailed for owning a television. Religion can be practiced only as their leaders dictate. A man can be jailed in Afghanistan if his beard is not long enough.The United States respects the people of Afghanistan -- after all, we are currently its largest source of humanitarian aid -- but we condemn the Taliban regime. (Applause.) It is not only repressing its own people, it is threatening people everywhere by sponsoring and sheltering and supplying terrorists. By aiding and abetting murder, the Taliban regime is committing murder.
The Taliban hated anything that was un-Islamic. (Remember: They did not tolerate the presence of the 1,700 year old Buddhist statues- historic significance and Afghan cultural heritage be damned).
President Bush was a man who said what he meant, and meant what he said:
And tonight, the United States of America makes the following demands on the Taliban: Deliver to United States authorities all the leaders of al Qaeda who hide in your land. (Applause.) Release all foreign nationals, including American citizens, you have unjustly imprisoned. Protect foreign journalists, diplomats and aid workers in your country. Close immediately and permanently every terrorist training camp in Afghanistan, and hand over every terrorist, and every person in their support structure, to appropriate authorities. (Applause.) Give the United States full access to terrorist training camps, so we can make sure they are no longer operating.These demands are not open to negotiation or discussion. (Applause.) The Taliban must act, and act immediately. They will hand over the terrorists, or they will share in their fate.
Under President Bush's leadership, America did not behave as a "paper tiger". When Ron Paul and Michael Scheuer speak of "blowback", I don't think of al Qaeda attacking the WTC because of American interventionism abroad; I think of our response to 9/11 in kicking terrorist @sses in two theaters, and all across the globe for the last decade. What happened to al Qaeda in Afghanistan and al Qaeda in Iraq, and what ultimately happened to Osama bin Laden, is the true blowback.
As Douglas Feith puts it in War and Decision,
(Excerpt) Read more at floppingaces.net...
Soon, they will have no reason to hate us, because all of our freedoms will be gone.
Why don't we believe them when they tell us they want to kill "unbelievers"?
America’s “interventionism” is existing at all and making friends abroad. Communists hate that and they all are terribly jealous of the dollar.
The terrorist wants slavery, an army of weak flesh strappin bombs on chests ready to blow themselves up to blow enemies up, getting rid of internal competition and colonizing enemies in one breath. The attacks have nothing to so with the reason enunciates by AlQaeda or supported by liberals who have their own excuse dressing agenda.
Could be why the govt. is always excusing and apologizing for the terrorists - just a small, fringe group - nothing to see here. Now that evil tea party - that is what we must conquer!
My guess is that the Kenyan Mall shootings was a “test run†for things to come here in the U.S. The terrorists gave it a go and now that they know how things turned out, can go back to the drawing board to work on the corrections necessary. (Tin hat theory? Maybe? Then again, maybe NOT).
Is the title referring to the elite in DC?
Simon Property is the big mall owner in the US.
If you want to speculate on your theory, short SPG.
“You’re either with us or from hollywood” this was on a billboard across the street from Quantico base at the beginning of the war in 2001.
I was going to post the same comments as you did except the soon isn’t accurate. Our freedom is gone with the current dictator and his DC Gestapo, IMO.
Sorry to be a wet blanket, but someone has to do it.
The “Miss Me Yet?” billboard (inspired by Jonathan Maney’s t-shirts) is cute. But let’s not get carried away with nostalgia.
President Bush put America on the proper war footing after 9/11 and deserves much credit for doing so, but he also:
1) joined with open-borders progressives McCain and Kennedy to try to force shamnesty down our throats;
2) massively expanded the federal role in education;
3) championed the Medicare prescription drug entitlement using phony math;
4) kowtowed to the jihadi-enabling Saudis;
5) stocked DHS with incompetents and cronies;
6) pushed Hillarycare for housing;
7) enabled turncoat Arlen Specter;
8. nominated crony Harriet Myers to the Supreme Court;
9) pre-socialized the economy for Obama by embracing TARP, the auto bailouts, the AIG bailout, and in his own words:“I’ve abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market system”
Things I don’t miss about George W. Bush( By Michelle Malkin • February 9, 2010 )
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