Today .... I will Remember!!!!!

In today's Obamanation there is a danger that Remberance of the Horror visited on our World that day will be buried (Pun intented!).  Those who are Remembered do not Die!!

I was 18 & in University in the UK on September 11th,  2001. It was Tuesday & I had begun the day by trying to complete my reading of 'The Guardian' from the previous Sunday. I read an article praising the Burqua & looking at the position of women in the Islamic world. It was an apologist position, positively in favour of Burqua wearing. I was considering this article when I got a cellphone call telling me that a plane had hit the WTC in NYC. My first thoughts were that it must be a private plane lost, then my friend suggested it looked bigger than that. It was 1.15 GMT or 9.15 am in New York.

I abandoned prep plans for my next lecture & headed to the Student lounge to see the news on tv. I arrived just in time to see the second plane strike the South Tower. I immediately understood.

I remember the tower burning; the second tower struck. I remember the horrific vision, surreal, of men and women leaping and falling to their deaths from the burning towers. The only choice left to them, how to die. I remember the scream of sirens, and the screams of onlookers. I remember the resolute faces of rescue workers. I remember the burning towers falling.

I remember three firemen raising the American flag ~ the flag of freedom ~ on a pile of smoking rubble. I remember the celebrations in the streets of Gaza (before Arafat threatened death to any who dared broadcast such images). And the Palestinians were hardly alone in rejoicing at the death and destruction wrought by the murdering terrorist jihadi that day. It happened throughout the Islamic world.

Today, we should all remember the innocent victims of September 11, 2001. We should remember the rescuers who gave their lives, and those who now suffer illness because they were there, trying to help. We should remember the heroes on Flight 93 who fought back, armed only with courage in the face of death. And we should remember every member of the armed forces, our defenders, who have given life and limb and the minutes and days of their lives, to protect us.

Since that terrible day, I have struggled to understand. The lives lost that day, and since then in my defence, the suffering of the injured and wounded, the grief of those who lost loved ones, demanded no less.

I have learned much, and I have begun to understand.

I spoke to a friend last evening, we sort of touched on this. There is a book (one of a series) by the infamous historian Eric Hobsbawm, defining the long 19th Century, which came to a close with the declaration of WWI in 1918. And another, the short twentieth one. That came to an end at 9.15am on September 11th, 2001.

The world did not change on September 11, 2001. Our view of the world changed. At least mine did!

It was as if a monstrous kaleidoscope had been turned, and an entirely different vision of the world was presented to us. In this horrific vision, we were suddenly surrounded by enemies unknown, their evil motives and goals beyond our comprehension. But they had been there all along, and they were not hiding. We simply did not see them for the evil they are or the threat they represent. I had thought just an hour before how the burqua evened the 'playing field' for the unpretty girls!!!

How niaeve was I????

We must learn to comprehend the evil motives and goals behind 9/11, and the evil men who advance them. I use the word evil advisedly, for evil exists just as surely as does goodness. These men are truly evil; failing to recognize their essential wickedness, if we do that, we too will suffer the evil fate they plan for us.

These men believe in Global Jihad and the establishment of a Worldwide Caliphate under Sharia law. In this evil vision, we are all of us, slaves. According to the tenets of their beliefs, we have but three options. We must convert to Islam, or we must accept second-class citizenship, pay a tax for the privilege, and submit to their rule and their law. Or we must die. There are no other alternatives.

This war upon the rest of humanity, this jihad, did not begin on September 11, 2001. It began centuries ago. It began even before the Crusades. It is a fundamental tenet of Islam that all the societies of so-called infidels should made subject to the Caliphate, by any means. And while some would have us believe that only a small minority of Muslims supports this jihad, the silence of so many Muslims in the face of this evil belies such claims.

The Qu'ran itself proclaims that silence is assent. In fact, it is a tenet of Islam that no duty of truth or fairness is due to infidels, and deceit in the service of jihad is no sin. Therefore even the words of the apologists for Islam, those who deny the inherent evil, are untrustworthy. Their protestations of innocence and benevolence cannot be taken at face value. We must judge them by their actions alone, and be not deceived.

Despite the violence and criminal attacks of the terrorist jihadi, and our necessary resort to violence in our own defence, the real war against the terrorist jihadi and their fellow travelers will be fought in the hearts and minds of men and women around the world. Given the choice between freedom and dignity, and slavery to the evil Mullahs, there is no doubt that the vast majority of the world's people will choose freedom. It is our task to promote and preserve this choice. To do so we must stand fast in the face of the wickedness and duplicity of our enemies; we must destroy them wherever they hide. We must support and protect the weak, and give them the chance to taste freedom and democracy, so that they too can understand the choice before them. If we have the will to do so, we will prevail. If we do not, we will die, and our children will live in subjugation.

I do not hate Muslims, or Islam. I have on occasion been accused of this. ..... I simply recognize the threat that blind obedience to an ancient and evil ideology, so rife with hatred and intolerance, poses to our way of life, and to the hopes for freedom and dignity of all the world's people. I recognize the hypocrisy and duplicity of those Muslims who give lip service to peace and tolerance before Western audiences, with a wink and a nod to the evildoers in their midst. I have pity and contempt for those Muslims who may believe in peace and tolerance, but who cower in silent fear of retribution, rather than speak out while their religion is smeared and stained with the blood of the innocent. I reserve my respect for Muslims like Abdel Rahman al-Rashed, general manager of al Arabiya, & Nonie Derwish, who have risked life by calling out the murderous terrorist jihadi for what they are, condemning the apologists and silent assenters, and calling upon their righteous Muslim brothers and sisters to join with them. They didn't!!

In some ways, I will forever feel unworthy of the sacrifices that others have made to preserve and protect me & my way of life. Do we not have a duty to do what we can, lest their sacrifices be in vain? I have become proud to live as an American, although my passport is still 'Irish'. Europe is once again appeasing the malevolent aggressor.

It is a privilege to be a member of the finest and greatest society that has ever graced this planet. America has faults, many faults, but she believes that all men are created equal; she believse in liberty and justice for all. America, as other free lands, sometimes falls short of these ideals, but we have to appreciate that America has established them to a degree previously unknown.

Freedom & Free Speech & so called Democracy cannot allow itself to be intimidated and reduced by threat of violence. These concepts so need to be fought for aggressively if they are to survive, not just passively supported. If we do not assume this mantle & rise to the challange, we may just find ourselves staring a pre-Enlightenment, very Dark Age, Islamic society squarely in the face.

We must never forget, we must never surrender. It is the only fitting tribute we can give to those who have sacrificed so much.

“In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare sieze the fire?
~ William Blake ~ “The Tyger” (1794)