JINSA Report #516 September 9th 2005

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September 9, 2005

JINSA Report #516

September 9th 2005

Sitting at the computer, waiting for inspiration for the 4th anniversary
of 9-11, Hurricane Katrina metaphors abound but inspiration fails. And
there is, in the failure of metaphor, inspiration. Victims and their
families need no inspiration for remembrance. The rest of us need no
metaphor.

As the raw horror of that day begins to recede, our obligation is to
remember both the horror and the heroism. And to remember what
motivates America's ongoing war against terrorists and the states that
harbor and support them. We did not go to war BECAUSE of September
11th, but rather AFTER September 11th. Only on that day did Americans
internalize the war against our country and our way of life that
terrorists began in Beirut in 1982. Only on that day did the
government (Administration and Congress; Republicans, Democrats and a
Socialist) know that the American people stood behind them.

So after waiting 19 years, we returned fire. Afghanistan first, with a
clear mandate but widespread predictions of doom and disaster. Then
Iraq, with a clear mandate from Congress but not the UN (unless you
count the 12 Security Council Resolutions, several involving the threat
of force). Again there were predictions of doom and disaster – some of
which proved quite true; others of which did not.

We returned ideological fire as well. America's 60-year bargain with
kings and dictators for
cheap-oil-for-willful-ignorance-of-the-nasty-regimes-they-ran expired.
We acted on the understanding that young, well-educated Muslims in
dictatorial countries, without the prospect of political liberty or a
decent job are prime fodder for radical groups, secular and religious.
On the understanding that consensual government, if not democracy, is
possible for people who are not heir to the Magna Carta and the U.S.
Constitution. On the understanding that they want it as much as we
treasure it.

In four years we have had much more heroism and horror. Our service
personnel demonstrate every day that America can fight a war against a
terrible and vicious enemy while bringing hope, aid and reconstruction
to civilians at the same time. They are our heroes, deserving of the
outpouring of support they have received from the vast majority of
Americans. Libya's abandonment of its WMD programs, and the transfer of
its chemical and nuclear materials to Oak Ridge, Tenn., makes all of us
safer. Elections in Lebanon, the PA, Jordan, Iraq, Afghanistan and
Egypt – flawed, every single one of them – still bring the people of
those countries closer to that elusive but essential civil society that
can, in time with help, produce consensual governments and democracy.
Iran remains the exception to evolutionary, not revolutionary, hopes.

Time passes and greater or lesser tragedies occupy cable news. We still
have no metaphor, but we do have the sure knowledge that America must
not become complacent about a war that is far from over, and gratitude
for the combination of luck, investigative skill and providence (and the
Patriot Act) that has protected us from a repeat of terrorist-induced
disaster on our soil.

To view this JINSA Report online click on the link below.
http://www.jinsa.org/JINSAReports/3146

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