Prior to 9/11 any idiot presumably could have gone to a large public place, a subway, a mall, a convention center, and with some sort of homemade device, killed a few thousand people. Indeed, an idiot, Mr. McVay appears to have done close to that in Oklahoma in 1998 (although there are inadequately investigated indications a middle eastern involvment may have existed). One of the things that makes 9/11 significant is the manner in which the assault was undertaken and the damage done to the non-human targets. The symbolism of America's engineering and financial greatness turned to wreakage in minutes by the perverse science fiction like simultaneous takeover of multiple passenger aircraft, was an assault not only on Americans but also on the American psyche.
It is reported that airline company employees were uncomfortable with middle easterners, paying cash for one way tickets and carrying no baggage on the morning of 9/11. In a normal world, in a Norman Rockwell or Samuel Clemons America that would have been enough to prevent the full catastrophe. Even Barney Fife would have held the suspicious characters for questioning long enough to defeat the plot. But by 2001 America was already living in a world created by the likes of Jamie Gorelick and Hillary Clinton, quintissential 1960's leftists that the reformed David Horowitz for one has been warning us about for years.
Through their persistent strategy of a "thousand cuts" including by institutionalized "political correctness" backed by lawsuit awards for "discrimination" and other subjective horrors, the 60's leftists had paralized the American spirit more successfully than the most lethal snake toxin. From the Pilot School owner who called the FBI, from the investigators who tried to warn the FBI and Justice Departments, down to the last minute of the last day, as helpless airline employees sensing something was wrong (not to mention the actor who reported strange passenger behavior days before during their dry run)were compelled to stand by and do nothing because of a thousand culturally imbeded Gorelick walls these same leftists, in a confused and delusional faith, combined with disdain for humanity, not unlike that of the terrorists themselves, had finally constructed a free passageway for wide scale pathological antisocial acts to go unrestrained resulting in a scale of massive disaster most Americans could never before then have envisioned being possible.
We should not forget where these policies began. They began when the United Nations was formed and the implicit principal that US policy should be influenced by "world opinion". They began when the US courts decided that well established police power must be restrained by ambiguous and senseless judicial conceptions of abstract reasonableness. They began when courts refused to deal with criminals who could find procedural errors in police or prosecutorial methods. They began when organized lawlessness and mayhem in American cities were not responded to by public authority and were excused by American intellectuals. They began when student lawlessness was similiarly unopposed and allowed to redefine the requirements of scholarship as well as the margins of civilized conduct. They exploded when the left gained the critical mass to enable an entirely unnecessary political defeat in Vietnam and stage a political coup (driving from power a president elected by a massive majority) over trivialities magnified by the political power vested in a congressional opposition. (Ms. Clinton of course was an eager and direct participant in the charade).
In a direct line from the Boland Amendment and the Church committee, clear products of the ugly smear of an historically great presidency by those who were envious of his achievements, the Gorelick wall and the thousand impositions on the normal life of Americans, distorting judgment and restraining rational self preservation driven actions, the morning of 9/11 (including the disarming of airline pilots which had been accomplished counter to the accepted practice of post WWII flyers who entered the profession out of combat) presented no obstacles to the sick minded terrorists, until the passengers on flight 93 learned enough to grasp what horror was unfolding around them.
The point is simply that on September 11, 2001, the 1960's leftist politicians, intellectuals, professors, lawyers, judges, and newspeople had succeeded in remaking America into their vision of a stale utopia, sufficient at least to render America defenseless, not because the terrorists were smart, but because the leftists made it easy for them through institutionalized nitpicking over perverse abstractions and demented notions of equality/justice including a deliberately skewed and seriously flawed immigration policies advanced in particular by the likes of Ted Kennedy and Jay Rockefeller twin examples of human flotsam made important by inheritence and arrogance (at least J.D Rock the first, made his money honestly, though).
The Clintons, poster children of the Left, acceded to power in 1992, via the Yale-Arkansas pedigre, both without credentials outside politics, through the complicity of a corrupt media and through the historical anomoly of Ross Perot's candidacy. The were never elected by majority of Americans. History will ultimately conclude that in the critical post cold war period (New World Order) this fluke of political fortune cast Americas future into the hands of an incompetent, self absorbed, mentally disturbed, perversely wicked, corrupt (I learned how to trade cattle futures by reading the wall street journal)couple. It is entirely appropriate that these two disdain Marriage. For their partnership is surely not a marriage in any normal sense. Their sadistic bond inexorably linked in their psyches with their views of governance (Gorelick Wall) and their instinctive willingness to employ flagrant vindictiveness to suppress or punish their "enemies", threatens again to distort normal political processes by interferring with a 40 MM dollar production set to be broadcast by one of their long time allies. Clearly, truth is a massive embarrassment to the Clintons and their ongoing ambitions.
One hopes only, that after all we have been through, and with this additional specticle of committed leftists threatening with every lever of power they can command or bluff, to chill free political expression (the left's sacred McCarthysm) that a majority of Americans will wake up from the stupor of Clinton toxic venoms and recapture the essentially American virtues of self defense, self preservation, and disdain for those who preach inaction in the face of evil, or consensus when every American breath can feel and smell the need for Victory.
President Bushes only significant error in fighting the war against the forces that killed Americans and toppled our national symbols on 9/11 has been his timerity in following his instincts and his tolerance for delays and mitigation of efforts and goals in deference to his political opponents and half hearted allies. Just as the jihadists knew there was more to be done than merely kill Americans, ie they knew they had to target symbols of our greatness to damage America, so too America, must bring down symbols of the power of the jihadists with massive and spectacular defeats of the sources of their power. By way of example I am quite in favor of every mosque and congregation of every wahabist or similiar leaning Imam being obliterated in a simultaneous attack during services throughout any area, territory or country that has evoked militant hostility to the U.S. or its citizens, unless such Imams have specifically and publically condemed terrorist violence. Alternatively, I think the time has come to consider a simultaneous tactical nuclear strike on every suspected Iraninan nuclear site along with a similar attack on their parliment when in session at the same time, ie. it is time to show the jihadists what a coordinated attack really looks like.
The world may well feign hatred if the US takes these kinds of actions. On the other hand Europe will be relieved as always by US action, and the price of oil will tumble. If my suggested methods are too crude, then I invite our government to polish and refine any plan that results in a devastating blow to the jihadists. Nothing wrong with bringing democracy to Iraq and the broader middle east for example, however, it is a mistake to leave the end in doubt, even for a minute.
The American people will never, by a majority, elect a Clinton who opposed Bush, if Bush will bring us Victory. If he cant bring Victory, anyone eventually will be able to be his party's designated successor.
I watched all 6 edited seans and was curious if albright did inform Pakistan about the incoming attack could she not be brought up on treason charges knowing that the Pakies were very close to the talaban?
Thank you both for your tireless efforts in keeping the real Clinton legacy alive.
You buy one, you get the second for free. Bought crap and free crap...what a bargain the Clintons turned out to be..../sarc.
Czar, many thanks for the ping.
Mia, your research is impeccable, and your commentary is among the most powerful on this forum. This post is no exception. You are a treasure!
GW, the brilliance of your essay in post 27 is far above my poor power to add or detract. :) There is not a word with which I disagree, or anything that I would add. You have said it all … and you’ve said it with incomparable insight and eloquence. Thank you!
I am quite in favor of every mosque and congregation of every wahabist or similiar leaning Imam being obliterated in a simultaneous attack during services throughout any area, territory or country that has evoked militant hostility to the U.S. or its citizens, unless such Imams have specifically and publically condemed terrorist violence. Alternatively, I think the time has come to consider a simultaneous tactical nuclear strike on every suspected Iraninan nuclear site along with a similar attack on their parliment when in session at the same time, ie. it is time to show the jihadists what a coordinated attack really looks like. ... deserves constant, drumbeat repetition.
On a semi-related topic (having found nowhere else to post this, I’ll do it here :) ... We are finding ourselves bombarded with 9/11 memorial tributes over these twenty-four hours, but I can’t help but wonder whether most of us are too often compartmentalizing the repercussions of that fateful day – not allowing them to penetrate and permeate our lives as deeply as they must, for us to have a strong enough grasp on the threat that we are facing.
To help us along that self-destructive road, there has existed a self-imposed media moratorium on showing more than a smattering of the horrific pictures, videos and accounts of the holocaust of 9/11 over the five years that have elapsed since (with the exception of today). And a similar moratorium has been placed on the showing of equally horrific images of, or making anything but passing reference to, beheadings, burnings, dismemberments, etc. that have occurred in Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries in which terrorists have been doing what they do best.
I believe I watch television news reports as much as, and probably more than, the average American, and I only once saw pictures of an frenzied mob, consisting of Iraqi men, women and children, dragging the charred, dismembered bodies of the four American contractors through the streets of Fallujah early on in the war, two of whose barely-recognizable-as-human remains were hung from a bridge over the Euphrates. Seeing that video caused a head-to-toe, visible chill the likes of which I have never before experienced. And just that one viewing has caused the image to be forever emblazoned in my memory.
The kidnapping and brutal murder of British C.A.R.E. worker, Margaret Hassan, illustrates this media moratorium as well. To this day, authorities are not certain whether Hassan is the woman whose body was discovered on a street outside of Baghdad with her legs and arms cut off and throat slit, or whether she was merely shot in the head by her captors. Whichever her fate, once it had been determined that she was no longer alive, her story disappeared from our television screens, as if it no longer merited investigation or our collective attention and remembrance.
Islamic terrorists perform such grisly rituals frequently, and with relish. But the mainstream American media have taken it upon themselves to decide that the American citizen is much too weak-kneed to anymore view, or focus for any length of time on, such atrocities. The media have become our sensitivity censors-by-proxy.
… a fact which would be slightly more palatable if we had not all been subject to weeks upon weeks of photos of a handful of aberrant American soldiers (who no doubt represent .00001% of Americans serving in the Middle East) ‘humiliating’ Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib, or rumors of incidents of American misconduct at Haditha.
My guess is that, were the average American subject to an equal amount of visual reminders and commentary regarding the genuine atrocities committed against freedom-loving people world-wide as they are the fabricated or magnified-out-of-realistic-proportion ‘atrocities’ committed by Americans, the generally short-attention-span mindset of the citizenry would be far more united and resolute in our war on Islamic fascism – perhaps even to the point of being outraged by the recent judicial ruling (among other countless outlandish offenses) outlawing effective intelligence procedures that have been proven to enhance our safety and security.
So why the media blackout? And, equally disturbing, why the media insistence on drumbeat repetitious reference to America’s warts?
My husband and I have seen three major media productions that purportedly attempt to portray the events of 9/11: Paul Greengass’s United 93, Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center, and the A&E made-for-television Flight 93. The first two were fairly well publicized, and the third received little if any fanfare.
United 93 was a dry, documentary-leaning depiction of the hijacking and eventual crash of United flight 93. It evoked little emotion, and we left the theater feeling as if we had just sat in on a college physics lecture.
World Trade Center was a soap opera depiction of the attack on the Twin Towers – a depiction of the courage and resolve of the first responders. But nowhere did it even remotely illustrate the vicious, sadistic, brutal, obsessive nature of the barbarians who caused the tragedy. Even the image of dozens of our countrymen plunging to their deaths was bastardized by the showing simply of a single rag doll-like figure falling lifelessly from a window. And the explanation that the focus of this movie was intended only to be fixed on the courage of the rescue workers falls on my deaf ears. One cannot purport to depict any major aspect of that tragic day without making reference to the subhuman nature of Islamic fascism that brought it about. To ignore the roll of the perpetrators amounts to purposefully dulling the sense of outrage that needs to be aroused.
In contrast, A&E’s Flight 93 is a godsend that every adult American, and every high school history class, must see. The movie does beautiful justice to a story whose accurate, meaningful telling seems next to impossible. In the viewing, we come to know (and know intimately) our countrymen who were aboard that ill-fated plane. We come to know their families. We feel the agony, anger, despair … and we applaud the courage. There is no soap-opera dialogue or phony Hollywood dramatics. And we see and experience what the madmen of this world, without conscience or compassion, have planned for those of us who do not come to embrace their beliefs.
Here is my point in all of this (if you’re still with me :) …
Shortly after seeing Flight 93, I heard Deena Burnett, the wife of Tom Burnett (who, along with, Todd Beamer, Jeremy Glick, Mark Bingham, and others, took it upon themselves to rush the cockpit), and author of Fighting Back: Living Beyond Ourselves, speak at Saint Mary’s College. She must have spoken for close to an hour. She is every bit as intelligent, eloquent, passionate, engaging, and humble as Todd Beamer’s wife, Lisa. And her account of the events of 9/11, as well as its effect on the families of those on board Flight 93, and its repercussions for our country, was mesmerizing. Every fact and recollection that she offered the audience was incredibly, and accurately, portrayed in Flight 93. I admire her immensely, as I do Lisa Beamer. And I applaud their courage, their faith, and their mission: (1) to awaken America to the importance of a knowledge of the nature of the enemy, (2) to underscore the need for preemption and preparedness, and (3) to remain strong in spite of our adversity.
After her talk, Mrs. Burnett was asked how often she speaks publicly. She responded that, with three young daughters who are her first priority, she limits her speaking engagements to only about four a year.
And yet, the room in which she spoke appeared to have a capacity of perhaps four hundred … and half of the seats were empty.
We cannot fault our government, our ivory-tower academics, and our media for all that ails us. Many of us disconnect from the events of 9/11, and don’t take them with us in our daily walk. We allow the powers that be to lull us into believing that the Duke Lacrosse rape case, or the continuing sagas of JonBenet Ramsey and Natalee Holloway, are somehow momentous events, more deserving of our attention than the daily atrocities perpetrated on innocents around the globe by madmen who grow more emboldened by our willingness to embrace programmed diversion and apathy.
Sometimes the most powerful truths can be found in the most simple of ideas: The winning of this war will depend entirely on whether we are more determined to preserve our liberty and sovereignty than they are determined to destroy them.
Doing the former will require not intermittent, but consistent, outrage and resolve. In order to maintain both, we must not allow the media to lull us into a sense of security, or allow ourselves to be diverted by bread-and-circus repetition of pointless drivel posing as news.
And we must not allow snake oil salesmen masquerading as public servants to preach their divisiveness, because they value the amassing of personal and ideological power more than they do the defeat of this historically unprecedented malevolence bent on the annihilation of the free world. A good segment of the American citizenry has been programmed to believe that 3,000 deaths on the battlefield during a three-year war is indicative of an un-winnable quagmire. I wonder how many among us are aware that, during the battle of the Somme in World War I, the British sacrificed more than 19,000 men in a single day.
We are allowing ourselves to be programmed into submission. We are being conditioned to be impatient, superficial and self-absorbed. And a people with the attention span of a field mouse, and the critical thinking ability of the same, doesn’t stand a prayer of defeating the most wicked force in the history of mankind.
At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? By what means shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years. At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time, or die by suicide ... Abraham Lincoln
~ joanie
Allegiance and Duty Betrayed
