Did you know that we’ve been at war for fifteen years today? Andrew McCarthy reminds us of this fact.
On the morning of February 26, 1993, Islamic militants steered a nondescript Ryder van through the winding darkness of the parking garage under the World Trade Center. They had spent years planning this moment in secret meetings at mosques and jailhouses, in rural outposts that served as paramilitary camps, and in safehouses where explosive compounds were mixed in makeshift labs.
Loaded into the van’s rear compartment was a 1,400-pound chemical bomb.
As we know, Islamists had wanted to do then what they finally succeeded in doing eight and a half years later—topple two symbols of American success.
McCarthy lays out the specifications of the bomb, its intended purpose and why it “failed.” He also remind us that
the silver lining [so few deaths] caused us to miss the ferocity and determination of our enemies.and that they learned from their failure and ours.
While creatures like those in the two posts below bluster anonymously, hurl epithets and scream counter-Jihad at everyone--including their fellow citizens who aren’t sufficiently radical—from behind their computer screens, real men and women are out there waging real battles; martial, informational and personal. Civilian journalists and bloggers like Michael Totten and Bill Ardolino are putting their lives aside to go to Iraq, see what’s really going on and bringing the information to the rest of us.
But again I ask this: are the efforts of these honorable persons in vain? Are we at war with Islamists or with Islam; that is, all Muslims?
Because if it is the latter, then we should pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan and break all ties with Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, etc. and stop pretending that we want the best for these people. However, if it is the former, then we should restrain the nasty rhetoric and verbally denounce those who traffic in such. Why? Because it is the mouthy nutjobs who contribute to the deaths of our men and women abroad—contribute just as much as those who exhort us to tuck tail and run from the mission to which we’ve already dedicated ourselves.
The question remains, however. Which is it?
