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Eight Years On (Steyn on 9/11)
Steyn Online ^ | 9/11 | Mark Steyn

Posted on 09/11/2009 4:54:52 PM PDT by xzins

Eight Years On [Mark Steyn]

No dynamic culture can stand still, so we shouldn't be surprised that fewer and fewer people, from the president down, find it harder and harder to remember quite what "the day that changed the world" was all about. Nevertheless, there is unfinished business — starting with that hole in the ground in lower Manhattan. As James Lileks says:

That we couldn’t stand there eight years ago was their fault. That we cannot stand there today is ours.

At Ground Zero and in that field in Pennsylvania, we broke faith with the dead. What a small number of brave civilians did on Flight 93 was magnificent. The feeble passivity of their wretched memorial — the "crescent of embrace" or whatever nancified modification is on the table this week — is a national disgrace.

It's interesting on this day to read Michael Rubin's posts on Tony Blair and Yale's cartoon cravenness. I wrote in NR the other week about the Danish Motoons:

***In the long run, the ostensibly trivial matter of some undistinguished drawings in an obscure provincial newspaper in a nation way out on the periphery of the horizon may yet prove to be more significant than a direct violent assault on the citadels of American power. September 11th was a bloody provocation that was met with a vigorous display of will: Within a few weeks al-Qaeda’s training camps were smashed to smithereens, and its patrons in Kabul had hitched up their robes and fled. The cartoon crisis was a minor, albeit murderous, affair that rippled across the globe to be met by a dismal lack of will by almost every panjandrum of western civilization, from European Union commissioners to Canada’s ghastly “human rights” regime. As the years go by, that seems the more relevant template.***

If you kill large numbers of us in our own cities, we will hit back — probably (the Spanish didn't). But the effort is great and not without cost. So the prime minister who dispatched soldiers of the Queen to Afghanistan and elsewhere cannot defend core civilizational values either in his own country or at Yale. The "international community" has decided it can live with a nuclear Iran — and no doubt the nuclear Syria and nuclear Sudan and nuclear Somalia that will one day follow.

The president of the United States congratulates himself on his fearlessness in standing up for the right of a woman to choose to wear a hijab but won't say a word about the young Muslim girls murdered by their families in America, Canada, Britain, Sweden, Germany, and around the world for choosing not to wear a hijab. As is now traditional for the observances of the anniversary, the media offer their doleful reports on American Muslims' "fears" of a "backlash" against them, even though the post-9/11 period has been an era not of Islamophobia but of weirdly insistent Islamophilia. And in our broader culture, self-loathing, trutherism, and other fin du civilisation poses run rampant, even unto the heart of the government.

9/11 was bad news if you were enjoying the good life in a jihadist training camp in the Hindu Kush. But, over the long run, it was a useful lesson in the limits of western will.

09/11 04:28 PMShare


TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 8thanniversary; eighthanniversary; marksteyn; resolve; steyn; wot

1 posted on 09/11/2009 4:54:52 PM PDT by xzins
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To: xzins

Eight years later and we have a Kenyan Marxist President from Kenya. Great!

Oh, forget about the value of the money you’ve saved.


2 posted on 09/11/2009 4:59:10 PM PDT by tired1 (When the Devil eats you there's only one way out.)
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To: tired1

* years after 9-11 and we have a Moslem president. Do you suppose the Jihad has won?


3 posted on 09/11/2009 5:06:34 PM PDT by arthurus ("If you don't believe in shooting abortionists, don't shoot an abortionist." -Ann C.)
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To: xzins
What a small number of brave civilians did on Flight 93 was magnificent.

I sometimes wonder if we wouldn't have been better off in the long run had that plane hit the Capitol building as planned.

4 posted on 09/11/2009 5:12:06 PM PDT by EricT. ("Mankind, when left to themselves, are unfit for their own government." -George Washington)
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To: arthurus

I really cant say, but I don’t think so. Much depends on the action of the next few months.

I saw Steve Forbes on Covuto when he expressed that this was US socialism’s last gasp. Hope he’s correct.

All of this stuff can evaporate when the BEAST starves.

Pray.


5 posted on 09/11/2009 5:14:27 PM PDT by tired1 (When the Devil eats you there's only one way out.)
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To: tired1

Beck’s show played a collage of sounds and images from 9-11. It was all I could do to keep it together when I thought of the years gone by and where we have ended up.

I really wanted Fox to replay Tony Snow’s remarks at the end of his show after 9-11 (Fox News Sunday I think).
I want to find a transcript.


6 posted on 09/11/2009 5:21:48 PM PDT by visualops (artlife.us)
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To: EricT.

Yes, that thought occurs to me occasionally, too.

There was one brief moment when they were all out on the steps singing “God Bless America,” but within two weeks, the Dems started to blame the US for being attacked and converted the whole thing into a lefty political circus. It’s unreal when you look back on it.


7 posted on 09/11/2009 5:34:53 PM PDT by livius
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To: arthurus

Bambi isn’t any more Muslim than he is African American. He’s Muslim identified, though, and he has spent nearly two decades trying to be accepted as African American.

He probably doesn’t practice Islam at all, but deep down inside, he sees this as part of his persona because he hates the US and this is a way of expressing it. He’s not African American, either (he’s not a descendant of Africans sold by the Arabs and brought here against their will as slaves), but he has also worked hard to create this persona for himself, spending 20 years in Rev Wright’s hate whitey church and consciously seeking to marry somebody he regarded as authentically “African American” (which she is).

I don’t know who won. I think the jihadis believe they have won, and the Marxists believe they have won, and to some extent, both of them have, because they can coexist. But they rode in on a sociopathic horse, and I think Obama is going to flip out one of these days, buck them off and trample both of them. He wants to rule them. And we shall see what happens then.


8 posted on 09/11/2009 5:43:44 PM PDT by livius
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To: livius
Obama is not properly even very black African. The Luo tribe of his African roots is in large part of Arab origin.
9 posted on 09/11/2009 5:50:03 PM PDT by arthurus ("If you don't believe in shooting abortionists, don't shoot an abortionist." -Ann C.)
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To: xzins

One more reason to be a Steyn fan (as if I needed one): he has Golden Retrievers:

http://www.steynonline.com/content/view/2428/26/

- Jp


10 posted on 09/11/2009 5:52:10 PM PDT by Josh Painter ("Government cannot make you happy or healthy or wealthy or wise." - Sarah Heath Palin)
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To: Josh Painter

I saw those. They are too cute.


11 posted on 09/11/2009 5:58:42 PM PDT by Excellence (Meet your new mother-in-law, the United States Government)
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To: EricT.

My sense, learned over these past 2 decades, is that our Congress is a corrupt lot of elitists.

I cannot imagine a more unworthy group to deal with issues such as health care and war.

They aren’t deserving of the sacrifices made for them in the field on this day....much less that heroic sacrifice on flight 93.

Do I wish them dead? No.

But I surely wish them, republicans and democrats alike, out of office. If fright alone would have caused that, it would be worth considering.


12 posted on 09/11/2009 6:01:39 PM PDT by xzins (Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! Those who support our troops pray for their victory!)
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To: EricT.
I sometimes wonder if we wouldn't have been better off in the long run had that plane hit the Capitol building as planned.

I wonder if we would have rebuilt the capitol dome? It's a fair question. We haven't done squat in rebuilding the twin towers -- an act of defiance that our enemies could not deny.

13 posted on 09/11/2009 6:16:00 PM PDT by Tallguy ("The sh- t's chess, it ain't checkers!" -- Alonzo (Denzel Washington) in "Training Day")
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To: xzins
So the prime minister who dispatched soldiers of the Queen to Afghanistan and elsewhere cannot defend core civilizational values either in his own country or at Yale.

No. Most of our "elite" can't define what a core civilizational value is.

The president of the United States congratulates himself on his fearlessness in standing up for the right of a woman to choose to wear a hijab but won't say a word about the young Muslim girls murdered by their families in America, Canada, Britain, Sweden, Germany, and around the world for choosing not to wear a hijab.

Nor will any of our journalists either. Nor will any of our academics. Nor will any of our political class.

Find me someone who can define what a core civilizational value is, and find me someone who is willing to speak up about the right of young muslim girls to be able to live free without being murdered by their husbands or their parents, and I'll back that person for president.

I don't care what party they are from, I'm there.

As it is, most of our "elite" only favor parental rights if it involves handing someone over to a muslim or a communist. Anyone notice that the governor of Ohio has called for the girl in Florida to be returned home?

Disgusting.

14 posted on 09/11/2009 6:16:29 PM PDT by marron
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To: xzins

I’m not big on memorials.

Deliver Bin Ladin’s head on a pike.

Re-build the twin towers 20 stories higher.

Plant a cherry grove in the field in Pennsyvania, and be done with it.

More important is making sure it doesn’t happen again.


15 posted on 09/11/2009 6:20:02 PM PDT by marron
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To: EricT.
I sometimes wonder if we wouldn't have been better off in the long run had that plane hit the Capitol building as planned.

Thank you for saying that. I've thought it from 9/11. And more and more since, because of the politicians' weasley reactions. What if about half of Congress had been wiped out that day? Think they would have a different attitude? But we can't talk about that. It wouldn't be politically correct.

16 posted on 09/11/2009 6:25:13 PM PDT by Free State Four
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To: Free State Four

BUMP!


17 posted on 09/11/2009 6:42:10 PM PDT by Publius6961 (Obama Garden Club: Nothing but plants.)
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To: marron

I’m not big on memorials.

Deliver Bin Ladin’s head on a pike.

Re-build the twin towers 20 stories higher.

Plant a cherry grove in the field in Pennsyvania, and be done with it.

More important is making sure it doesn’t happen again.

Bump.


18 posted on 09/11/2009 7:24:17 PM PDT by headsonpikes (Genocide is the highest sacrament of socialism - "Who-whom?")
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Listen to Steyn interviewed weekly on Hugh Hewitt’s show. It’s always great.


19 posted on 09/11/2009 7:55:34 PM PDT by Competition clutch
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To: EricT.
I sometimes wonder if we wouldn't have been better off in the long run had that plane hit the Capitol building as planned.

Me too.

20 posted on 09/11/2009 8:08:08 PM PDT by Aria ( "The US republic will endure until Congress discovers it can bribe the public with the people's $.")
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To: xzins

bump


21 posted on 09/11/2009 8:56:52 PM PDT by Christian4Bush ("A community organizer can't start bitching when communities organize." - Rush, 8/5/09)
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To: All

..

Barack Hussein Obama has banned the National Day of Prayer from the White House, now get a load of THIS!!
ISLAM ON CAPITOL HILL 2009 - islamoncapitolhill.com
http://islamoncapitolhill.com/Home_Page.html
As many as 50,000 Muslims may be congregating at the White House with the blessings of the usuper.
Read their plans for ‘Muslims on Capitol hill’!!
Alarming! Infuriating!!
Does THIS leave any doubt as to what we have sitting in the White House?
Be sure to read every page!
Every page ends with ‘OUR TIME HAS COME’!!

.

Muslims in New York City desecrate the U.S. flag.
‘You see this flag, it’s going on the ground and we crush it beneath our feet...our loyalty is only to Allah’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HO74GwUTZj4

Muslims in Michigan fighting U.S. citizens
.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEPod-hxD7g&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fislaminaction08%2Eblogspot%2Ecom%2F2009%2F07%2Fmichiganmuslim%2Dmob%2Dsurrounds%2Dand%2Ehtml&feature=player_embedded


22 posted on 09/11/2009 9:56:58 PM PDT by patriot08 (TEXAS GAL- born and bred and proud of it!)
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To: All

.

On February 27th, speaking to Kristof of The New York Times, Barack Hussein Obama said the Muslim call to prayer is “one of the prettiest sounds on Earth at sunset.”

In an interview with Nicholas Kristof, published in The New York Times, Obama recited the Muslim call to prayer, the Adhan, “with a first-class [Arabic] accent.”
The opening lines of the Adhan (Azaan) is the Shahada:

“Allah is Supreme! Allah is Supreme!
Allah is Supreme! Allah is Supreme!
I witness that there is no god but Allah
I witness that there is no god but Allah
I witness that Muhammad is his prophet? “

According to Islamic scholars, reciting the Shahada, the Muslim declaration of faith, makes one a Muslim. This simple yet profound statement expresses a Muslim’s complete acceptance of, and total commitment to, the message of Islam. Obama chanted it with pride and finesse.

From ‘The Audacity Of Hope, “I WILL STAND WITH THEM (MUSLIMS) SHOULD THE POLITICAL WINDS OF WAR SHIFT IN AN UGLY DIRECTION..”

Quote from Barack Obama’s book, Dreams Of My Father:
“THE PERSON WHO MADE ME PROUDEST OF ALL, THOUGH, WAS MY [half brother], ROY..HE CONVERTED TO ISLAM”.

From ‘Dreams of my Father’, “IN INDONESIA, I SPEND TWO YEARS AT A MUSLIM SCHOOL” “..I STUDIED THE KORAN..”

From ‘Audacity of Hope: “LOLO (Obama’s step father) FOLLOWED ISLAM....”I LOOKED TO LOLO FOR GUIDANCE”.

From The Audacity Of Hope, “WE ARE NO LONGER JUST A CHRISTIAN NATION, we are also a Jewish nation, a MUSLIM NATION, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers.”
.

http://www.examiner.com/a-536474~_Trapped_between_two_worlds_.html
http://www.examiner.com/a-534540~Can_a_past_of_Islam_change_the_path_to_president_for_Obama_.html?cid=dc-article-obama

“My Muslim faith..” Barack Hussein Obama


23 posted on 09/11/2009 9:57:47 PM PDT by patriot08 (TEXAS GAL- born and bred and proud of it!)
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To: All
Image and video hosting by TinyPic Image and video hosting by TinyPic Image and video hosting by TinyPic "On this occasion, we celebrate the holy month of Ramadan and we also celebrate how much Muslims have enriched America and its culture in ways both large and small." Barack Hussein Obama.
24 posted on 09/11/2009 9:58:17 PM PDT by patriot08 (TEXAS GAL- born and bred and proud of it!)
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To: All

.
Let us NEVER forget those nearly 3,000 innocent Americans who were murdered by the Islamists.
Don’t let Obama desecrate the memory of those Americans who were murdered by his fellow Muslims. Send this video to everyone you know.
Every American should view this video made by a New Yorker who lived through the attack:

http://attacked911.tripod.com/

This video has been viewed by untold millions and is now in the Smithsonian.
(Sadly, the New Yorker who made this video has since succumbed to lung damage sustained during the attack)

The video includes the planes crashing into the buildings and victims jumping. There are pictures of many of those who lost their lives, and president Bush’s aftermath speech set to the haunting background music, ‘Only Time’ by Enya. It is truly awesome.
.

.


25 posted on 09/11/2009 9:58:52 PM PDT by patriot08 (TEXAS GAL- born and bred and proud of it!)
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To: livius
The Democrats started sniping at Bush right away, over his not flying directly back to Washington, DC (apparently he wanted to but the Secret Service wouldn't agree). There was a memorial service a few days later in Washington which all the bigshot politicians attended--I remember that Hillary showed disrespect to Bush on that occasion but don't recall what exactly it was that she did.

True, it was 2 or 3 weeks before it was business as usual for the Bush Derangement Syndrome sufferers in terms of decibels.

26 posted on 09/12/2009 4:31:41 PM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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