September 11, 2009- Nothing Has Changed

September 11, 2009

“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.” – John F Kennedy

Eight years later and nothing has changed for most Americans. It is true that many Americans are without direction and still others are so self hating they wish with all their might we fail our destiny.

This nation is still the greatest nation in the history of mankind.

This nation has contributed to the deliverance of more people from oppression to freedom than any other nation in history.

This nation is home to a citizenship that enjoys more freedoms than any other nation on earth.

This nation, over all others, is the preferred destination for more people seeking freedom and opportunity than any other nation in the world.

This nation did not change on September 11, 2001. On that day, who and what we are as a nation became clear. Contrast our identity, values and morality with those who sought to harm us.

This nation does not fear vigorous debate, free speech or disagreement.

This nation does welcomes legal immigrants and offers them opportunities for success that can be found nowhere else.

This nation, home to the world’s ‘wretched refuse’ is home to the most successful immigrant classes in history.

This nation is the most multicultural nation in the world.

This nation, founded on the principles of religious freedom, continues to provide shelter for all religious expression.

This nation, continue to give more foreign aid and assistance than any other nation.

This nation has contributed more to peace on earth than any other.

We want to win the war on terror and we will win the war on terror.

Wars are zero sum games. There are winners and losers. The notion of ‘win-win’ scenarios are applicable when we talk about widgets. ‘Win-win’ is not an acceptable ideology when dealing with people whose values and morality are anathema to our own. ‘Win-win’ is not acceptable when it comes to the Ku Klux Klan any more than it is acceptable when it comes to radical Islamists that spew vile hate and bigotry and promise our destruction and the destruction of Jews and Christians. We will not allow our society to be broken by the hateful ideologues of today or their apologists or supporters.

That the ideologies of hate, encouraged by propaganda, are so pervasive in the Islamic world and often embraced by leftist ideologues worldwide, only serves indicators as to how broken those beast-like ideologies really are.

We can discuss the roots of terror, ad infinitum. We can attend UN conferences and discuss the imbalance of wealth among the nations. We help Iraq develop a real constitution and help that country takes it’s first steps toward an all inclusive democracy. We can focus on an Israeli-Palestinian peace process (as much of a waste of time that might be) as if that were really the problem, and we can discuss the ‘alienation’ so many young Muslims feel.

In the end, will defeat terror by blowing up the terrorists. Brute, raw, force- the equal and opposite reaction of the terrorists own behavior. Of course, that force needs to be directed- but make no mistake, only force will eliminate the problem. To be clear, we are not saying that we must eliminate everyone who disagrees with us, even those who disagree virulently. Frankly, we don’t care what others might think. We are saying that anyone who will commit an act of terror or will facilitate an act of terror is fair game no matter what the rationale.

Why is that? Because in truth, terror is not brought on by poverty. Hostages are not taken and held, to be traded for economic aid. Planes aren’t flown into buildings in response to GDP of the free markets of the western world versus the GDP of the many tyrannies of the Muslim world.

Terrorists aims are deliberately misrepresented by the much of the left. The terrorists don’t want to see western values and successes brought into the Muslim world, because success lessens the hold the radical Islamists have on entire populations. The radical Islamists have much on common with the failed and dysfunctional leaders they claim to hate. they are fighting to prevent an empowered and educated Muslim population. Religious freedoms, individual rights and human rights are anathema to radical Islamist ideologies. Those ideologies demands the murder of those whose behavior they find offensive, best administered in a cruel and brutal fashion.

Terror has never had anything to do with economics or even politics, per se. Terror has always been about power and ideologies that the terrorists and their supporters and apologists want to impose. It is true that the terrorists will use the terms to distract from that reality, terms like ‘economic disadvantages’ or whatever else they believe will sound plausible as part of their justification for their outrage, but that is all for show. If they really cared about the politically and economically oppressed and disadvantaged, they would build businesses and fund opportunities. They would not build bombs and fund terror.

If the terrorists, their supporters and apologists really wanted to better the lives of their own, they would use America and the west as a model for success. They would not seek to destroy those countries. They would not seek to destroy the freedoms that brought that success.

Further, eliminating poverty does not- and cannot- change a mindset. Economic status does not determine morality and codes of conduct. Only values, born of dignity and the recognition that all men and women are of equal value, determines morality and codes of conduct. The ideologies, values and morals that are the lifeblood of free nations are ideologies, values and morals that drive people to exceed their potential for good.

The ideologies, values and moral that drive people to blind hate and to destroy are very different. Terror, the support of terror and identification with those who engage in or apologize for terror is driven by the ideologies, moralities and values of evil, period.

The ideologies of Radical Islamism are very clear and have not changed since September 11,2001. The goal is to destroy, punish and subjugate non believers. The real enemy are free peoples. Freedom is antithetical to terrorism because freedom usurps the power of the terrorist. With out the power to instill fear and punishment, the terrorist is nothing. The icon of freedom is the US, of course. Our freedoms, success and ever growing potential are what the terrorist must destroy. Prosperity is the terrorists fifth column. They cannot abide by a culture that is prosperous, because that culture seeks growth and progress. The terrorists cannot abide progress. That too, weakens their hold.

The ideologues of hate mistakenly believe that if they can destroy the United States of America, they can destroy freedom. Of course, freedom is much bigger than the United States. Once tasted, freedom becomes as necessary as water and oxygen. The Iraqis have had a sip of freedom. No matter the outcome of the war in Iraq now, that nation’s future is assured. Freedom will eventually find a safe haven in that nation.

As terrorists couple noble words in a morality of hate, many in the west are being plied with the wine of that deceit. In their drunken stupor, they believe they alone are the arbiters of truth and ethics. They are a parody, soon to be forgotten footnotes, like the leftists that preceded them. It is a stark truth that every political, nationalist or economic expressions embraced by the left has failed miserably.

When given a real choice, people will in the end, always choose freedom.

While we cannot eliminate terror from the face of the earth, we can make it a very expensive game to play.

There are governments that overtly or covertly support terror. If we hold them accountable and make that support expensive, those governments might think twice about their support. There must be consequence to the behaviors of those governments- and our military response must be part of those consequences, if necessary. America and the west must drop bombs, not hints at those that believe they can support terror with impunity.

Whether it is states like Iran or Syria, or organizations like Al Qaeda, there must be consequences for direct or indirect support of those who think and believe terror is a legitimate form of political expression. Terror is an ideology of hate, not an political expression. In the same way we dealt with the Nazi ideology of hate, so must we deal with radical Islamism. Hate comes at a cost.

We suspect a strong military reaction to the supporters of hate- one very close to home- would get the attentions of those regimes that have embraced terror as a tactic and means to an end. Dropping bombs and not leaflets has a way of doing just that.

Eight years after 9/11, nothing has changed.

Portions of this post have been previously published.