Firetruck attempts to fight flames at the Pentagon
Authorities examine the crater where United Flight 93 crashed in Shanksville, PA
Since that faithful crispy day of September when America changed, life in our Nation has continued pretty much unaltered, at least for the majority of the American people.
The push has been to maintain as normal a life as possible, with the excuse that any disruption to our way of life could be considered a victory for the enemy.
Images and writing about that horrible day in September have subsided, almost as if the general consensus was that we, as a Nation, did not need to concentrate, and some people called it obsess, over the tragedy we experienced.
One of the disturbing trends I have noticed is the increasing tendency on the part of the population in America to remain distant from any event that does not directly impact their everyday life. We have become a country of noticeable indifference, more preoccupied about our little sliver of existence than the National ideals that used to be so dear and important to us.
For decades after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, the mood of American remained set that another incident like that was not going to repeat itself. The Day of Infamy, as precisely called by Franklyn Delano Roosevelt, was going to be avenged and never forgotten. To this day and in spite of the fast diminishing population of survivors of that day, we still remember and commemorate the events of that Sunday morning so long ago. To this day millions every year visit the Arizona Memorial and silently, respectfully pay tribute to the memory of those who perished.
And even after more than six decades, the grainy images of the attack occasionally appear on the television in documentaries and news reports.
Commemorating Pearl Harbor day is not just a measure of respect and gratitude for those who were there that day, but it is also the marking of the beginning of the era when the United States became an international Superpower, surpassing every other country in the world.
American entry in WWII that followed the attack on Pearl Harbor unleashed two major capabilities of our country. One was the economic potential that the Nation possessed thanks to the natural resources, the industrial development and ingenuity. The second, and most important, was the unity that the American people re-discovered as a foreign threat became apparent. Everyone in the country united behind its leadership and especially behind the Military. The vast majority of American families had someone fighting overseas, either in the European theater or in the Pacific. And those who remained stateside were mostly involved in the production of the necessary tools needed to support our Military in their efforts.
Ultimately it was these circumstances that brought victory to America, and freedom to Europe and countless territories in the Pacific and across the globe.
But even after Japan had been defeated, December 7 1941 remained a “Day of Infamy” and was, and still is, memorialized as such.
But the Day of Infamy was amply surpassed in its tragedy but a crisp, sunny September morning in 2001. In one major aspect, the attacks against America on 9-11-01 were greatly more infamous than Pearl Harbor: the installations attacked by the Japanese were military sites, the attackers wore a country’s military uniform and had strategic reasoning behind it. The attacks perpetrated by the Islamic terrorists on 9-11 were, with the exception of the Pentagon, directed against civilian targets by animals who, at least some of the 19 terrorist, had lived in the United States and who wore no uniforms. There was no strategic value attached to the Twin Towers. And even the Pentagon, crushing one plane into the massive building was surely not going to have any valuable strategic return for the terrorists.
The only strategic value in the attack could have been if the terrorists would have been able to steer Flight 77 into the White House, instead of the Pentagon, and killed the President.
So, in my opinion, the infamy of 9-11-01 was greater that that of 12-7-41, as it was aimed at simply inflicting as many civilian casualties as possible and creating the highest level of popular terror. It is also my opinion that the collapse of the WTC was a premium result of the attack, a unpredicted fortune that Osama bin Laden could have not dreamt of.
The aftermath of the attacks of September 11 were documented extensively by the Media. Countless hours of heart-wrenching stories of people now gone, of relatives looking for their loved ones who will never go home, of firefighters and policemen and emergency personnel who died in the service of others. There were poignant pictures and videos of the planes hitting the towers and blood-chilling images of poor souls jumping from the towers, exercising their last measure of control by selecting to crush hundreds of feet below rather than burn alive. And the Media was prompt in showing these dramatic images.
United Flight 175 about to strike the South Tower
Then almost overnight, political correctness took hold of America again. Even as the stories and images continued to be shown, the most revealing pictures of that day begun to disappear. Images of falling bodies, of the planes flying into the towers, of bloody wounded and dead stopped being shown in fear that the American people would backlash against the Muslim population in America. The pressure from Islamic groups placed upon American leadership, including President Bush, created a process of sanitizing aimed at making sure that people across America would not go out of their homes and take their frustration and growing hatred out on the innocent Muslims living among us.
Interestingly enough, incidents of violence against such people was surprisingly minimal, even before the ban on graphic images was self-inflicted by the news organizations. Even more interestingly, the same Islamic groups, C.A.I.R. comes to mind, never actually came out and openly express their outrage about the attacks. Sure they denounced violence and the death of innocents, but always in the context of protecting themselves. I do not recall any prominent Imam from an American mosque actually come out on national television and denounce the actions of the al-Qaeda terrorist as an insult to the religion of Islam.
The American people were also treated to images coming from outside the country. Scenes of disbelief and condolences from places like Great Britain and France and Australia, but also images from the Palestinian territories, where people were dancing in the streets and passing out candies in celebration. Well the images of condolence continued to appear, but the vile, offensive images of Muslims celebrating also were removed and sanitized.
FDNY Chaplain's body being taken away after being struck and killed by a jumper
Cameras immortalized images of the horror and destruction, of people who died helping others, only to be relegated to the hidden archives of history, where they remain hidden so to cater to the small minority crying for protection from a nonexistent enemy. But the images are there and so is the indignation of many Americans.
In the aftermath of the attacks, thousands of young men and women rushed to the recruiting offices of the Armed Forces in a fashion reminiscing, on a small scale, of the same rush experience after Pearl Harbor. It was obvious, to the majority of the American people, that war had been declared against our country by the obscure forces of evil Islamic terrorism. What the average American did not realize was that the 9-11 attacks were just another battle our enemy engaged us, as the war had been going on for years already. Suddenly, on that day, the average American felt vulnerable. Rumors of impending similar attacks in Los Angeles, Chicago, St. Luis and many other urban centers in the States, made people uneasy and almost every American realized, just as Americans on Dec 7 1941 that such an infamous act of belligerence had to be responded to.
People react in shock to the view of the carnage at the WTC
I say almost, because by 2001 the American spirit of self-preservation, of national rage was so diluted that there were people walking our streets that just did not get it. I cannot forget one of my co-workers at the time. As we were watching the images on the cafeteria television, the South tower begun collapsing, and the couple dozen people assembled in the room gasped loudly. I was standing incredulous next to this man and muttered the words “this is war!” at which point he proceeded to chastise me: “war, war why you have to think about war right away!”
I was truly dumbfounded. Here we are watching the same images of the WTC crumbling down, knowing so well that thousands of people inside would have no chance of surviving, just after we witnessed a deliberate act of terrorism, of war, perpetrated against our country, and this moron is admonishing me regarding my use of the word “war”. I only had two ways I saw fit to respond as I was not in the mood to have a rational debate: one was to punch him right in his face or to ignore him. So I ignored him.
With the exception of those who fundamentally hate America and those whose only reason for living in our Nation is to take advantage of its opportunities, the rest of America, regardless of political affiliation, was completely appalled by the horror they witnessed in New York, Washington and Shanksville. It was mainly the sense of defenselessness we felt as the idea of 19 terrorists armed with box cutters could inflict such a heavy toll in casualties was beyond our comfort zone, our comprehension.
But it took only few hours before the resolution that the American people had shown in times past sparked a sense of patriotism, a sense of unity, a feeling of rejection for such indiscriminate carnage that united the people in the desire for those who masterminded the attack to be eliminated. The country rallied around President Bush and its administration in search of, for lack of better word, revenge. Once again it appeared as if the giant had been awoken.
Unfortunately, those sentiments were destined to be short lived, as the traditional principles that had guided Americans from the time of the Revolution through the years, those principles of love of country and willingness to sacrifice for it, those principles of rejection of indiscriminate violence against our citizens had been diluted by a current of thought that saw America as an Imperialistic nation bent on controlling the world. A new generation of young people had had their minds altered by an academic system controlled by those who in the 1960s had been the pillars of the cultural revolution against America. Those hippies who were the butt of derision as pot smoking, free love morons were now part of most Universities faculties, flanked by countless Middle Eastern immigrants that had come to America to conduct their studies. These people, whom I consider to be moles in our system, received financial support from the governments of countries that are our enemies, openly or covertly. And after completing their studies they became professors, patiently instilling a sense of rejection, a sense of hatred for America in the minds of the students.
That is where we are today as a Nation. A country where on the eighth anniversary of the worst attack perpetrated against our safety and security, we have lost the sense of mourning and remembrance that we experienced in the weeks following the attacks. Old Glory was adorning the majority of the homes in America, the common person supported the Military that was called in to execute the directives of their Commander in Chief as he was duty-bound to insure that the safety of the American people was outmost on his agenda. Today Old Glory has been replaced by Lakers flags, Angels flags and other sport teams, even as our sons and daughters sacrifice and die in the deserts of Afghanistan and Iraq pursuing the idea of safeguarding our country.
No person with the slightest brain function would believe, on September 12 2001, that further attacks would not be following, especially as the lax attitude of our national security apparatus became apparent and as the lack of communication between our various intelligence agencies clearly contributed to the freedom that Mohamed Atta and his terrorist cell enjoyed in their movements around the country. And to add insult to injury, America has an Attorney General who appears relentless in persecuting those intelligence officers that were greatly successful in keeping America safe following September 2001.
And the forgetfulness of the American people, strongly fostered by the new Liberal political leadership in Washington, has today reached what I consider the point of disgrace. Not only people have “moved on” from the somberness of the memories of that day, but even the government is taking the necessary steps to further remove all reminders of that day. Obama and his cronies have decided, with the help of some Republicans who I can only describe as either traitors or just plain morons, to change September 11 from being a day to remember the victims of terrorism to the National Day of Service and Remembrance. The greater emphasis has been placed on the “service” portion of the celebration by no other than the now “defunct” Van Jones, green jobs czar for Obama who just recently was forced to resign after his radicalism became known and became a political liability. The emeritus Mr. Jones in August had stated that he wanted 9-11 to be the day when America gets together and plant trees and clean up streams.
"A whole day of service is happening on Sept. 11," he added, "… that is a great place for people to connect, to find other people in your peer group who are also passionate about re-powering America, but also about greening up America and cleaning up America”
Since September 11 was called Patriot Day, the Liberals have had a problem with it, as they saw it as a Republican day. So it is time now to remove that stigma and make it into a environmental celebration day. Why not!
Personally, it really does not matter what Obama calls September 11, I don’t care what his cult followers try to change it to. To me, as an American, it will for ever remain the day when 3,000 innocent people were sacrificed by the forces of evil Islam to the altar of terror and suffering. But also the day when, even for a short while, America had again been One Nation Under God, regardless what God it was.
I commemorate that day in somber reflection, feeling reinvigorated in my fight for my country, the United States of America, to return to those principles of patriotic sacrifice our Founding Fathers and millions of Military members over the past two centuries, lived and died for.
May God have mercy for all who perished on that day and their families.
And these are my thoughts
Frank “Semperpapa”
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