JINSA Report #601 "The Fifth Anniversary, Part I"

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September 8, 2006

JINSA Report #601

"The Fifth Anniversary, Part I"

What do we owe the September 11th families?

We owe them remembrance of their individual humanity. For Americans,
September 11th is unique in its character as a national day of mourning.
Being optimists, Americans generally mark birth-days. Pearl Harbor is
noted more as the point of our entry into World War II; Memorial Day is
generic, not specific to the lives lost in specific battles. Only for
September 11th do we mark the day of passing.

We owe them recognition of their heroism and its legacy. There were
victims, of course, but also an untold number of heroes - some by chance
and some by choice. There were those who rose to the occasion thrust
upon them. And there were those who, operating counter to every known
human impulse, ran into danger instead of out for the sake of their
fellows. Their legacy has been heightened American vigilance and
increased cooperation among law enforcement and government agencies, but
that is not enough. We vastly increase our security when the rest of us
are vigilant as well and cooperative with our law enforcement agencies,
not only in the moment of tragedy but in the everyday world in which
people can work to prevent tragedy.

We owe them perspective. The world didn't become a more dangerous place
on 9-11; we simply became aware of the danger that long existed. The war
against our country, our friends and our way of life didn't begin on
9-11; those who wanted to destroy us had been fighting and killing us
for years - in Beirut, in Yemen, in Tanzania, and in New York in 1993.
The war began in 1979 with the success of the Islamic Revolution in Iran
and mutated throughout the region, creating a swamp of terrorists and
states that harbor and support them in a variety of ways.

We owe them clarity about the nature and ideology of their killers.
Terrorists and their apologists would have us believe 9-11 and other
acts of terror around the world, including in Israel, are a response to
things America or Israel or the West does wrong. While we are fully
capable of doing wrong or being wrong, Islamic radicalism is rooted in
itself, not in us. It is a violent, fascist, sexist, anti-Western,
anti-Semitic, anti-Christian ideology drawn from the most narrow
possible 8th Century interpretation of Islam and a desire to attain
Islamic hegemony in as much of the world as possible. Terrorism is a
tactic in service to the ideology and to its spread.

The perpetrators were sent by masters abroad to live among our citizens
and millions of law-abiding, freedom-loving immigrants whose hospitality
and protection they abused. The terrorists believed they were protected
by America's legendary commitment to privacy and personal liberty. They
were, unfortunately, right in their time - but wrong in this time.
Liberty is the right of innocent people to be secure in their everyday
activities. Those who seek to kill us in our homes and our workplace, or
actively support those who would to that, are not entitled to privacy
and certainly not to liberty.

Finally, we owe them continuance of America’s righteous anger until
justice is done.

To view this JINSA Report online click on the link below.
http://www.jinsa.org/JINSAReports/3531
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