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September 11th, 2001--A Decade of Greiving and War Intertwined (KingShamus)

On September 11th 2001, ordinary Americans were caught in the horror of al-Qaeda's monstrous sadism.  The victims of the 9/11 attacks were a more or less random sampling of people from a broad spectrum of life in the States.  While none of them could've known that they would be murdered by pure human evil that day, many men and women rose up and became America's first heroes in the war against radical Islam.

One of them was Betty Ong.

The 45-year-old flight attendant was on American Airline Flight 11, the first of two that crashed into the World Trade Center. During the hijacking, Ong hid in the back galley, picked up a crew phone and bravely called the airline reservation desk.

"The cockpit is not answering their phone," Ong said during the hijacking. "There's somebody stabbed in business class and we can't breathe...somebody's got mace or something."

The call lasted 23 minutes. Ong spoke calmly, giving important details of the chaotic last moments.

The 9/11 Commission declared Ong a hero.

Indeed.

Here is the phone call she placed--in the midst of the hijacking, with murder surrounding her and in danger of being killed by terrorists--telling authorities what was happening on her flight.

 

And then this valiant woman was gone.

What did the 9/11 attacks cost us?  We can talk about the trillion dollars that simply evaporated from the American economy in a single morning.  The destruction of the Twin Towers and the Pentagon was meant to be a symbolic demolition of the United States' economic and military dominance.  But as important as these things are, they pale in comparison to the human price America paid on that day. 

Think about the hopes and dreams of the three thousand people who died on that day.  What did Betty Ong want for her life?  Was she saving for a house or new car?  Did she want to get married?  Were children in her plans?  Did she have career aspirations? These are questions that seem so banal, at least for the living.  Tragically, they cannot be answered when it comes to Ms. Ong--or anyone else who died because of Osama bin Laden's perverse ideology. 

Three thousand people are no longer with us, which means three thousand sets of families and friends were victimized on September 11th.  Those people who had a connection to the 9/11 victims not only had a part of their lives ripped away from them, but they had a part of their future destroyed as well; the weddings that didn't happen, the children that won't be born, the birthdays that have become a time of mourning.  When seen from that perspective, the 9/11 attacks take on an almost unthinkably barbaric and inhuman dimension.

It was Osama bin Laden and his followers who decided to make war against us in this fashion.  It was bin Laden, one of the most extreme adherents of a religion that has trouble reconciling itself to democracy, human rights, free market economics and the rest of modern civilization, that elected to use large scale terrorism on the United States.  America did not seek out this fight.  The fight was brought right into our home.  We had no choice but to bring war upon bin Laden and all those that would stand with him.  We have no choice but to continue to fight against all who follow in al-Qaeda's path. 

On this day, we should mourn.  We should mourn for those who had loved ones taken from them.  We should mourn for our country and all that it lost on that day.  But we should also celebrate the men and women that gave their lives in order to save us.  We almost never think of our neighbors and coworkers as potential heroes.  As it turns out, the 9/11 attacks showed us that America is full of people who will rise in the face of unimaginable danger to help others. 

At one of the darkest moments in this country's history, there were many like Betty Ong who put themselves in harm's way in order to do the right thing.  During the worst attack on America's soil, there were citizens that sacrificed their own lives in order to save the lives of others.  These folks were not sports icons, blowhard politicians or members of the celebrity class.  Our fallen 9/11 heroes were in fact ordinary Americans who were placed into unspeakable situations and performed extraordinary feats of selfless bravery.

On this day of sadness and pain, we should leave some room in our hearts for wonder.  Hopefully we never stop marvelling at the feats of our fallen champions from September 11th.  The valorous dead deserves our remembrance and our reverence.  We owe them far more than we can ever repay.

Update I:  Robert Stacy McCain shares his rememberences of 9/11.  He also knows who the real enemy is. 

Update II:  Manhattan Infidel posts a poignant piece about his 9/11.  The Infidel speaks a hard but necessary truth:

What happened that day makes me angry. It still makes me angry. To call Islam Medieval is an insult to the middle ages. Islam is pre-medieval. It is stone age. It is barbaric.

Read the whole thing.

Update III:  Karen Howes of the terrific Eastern Right has this to say:

May we always continue to be Americans.

Amen, Karen.  Amen.

Update IV:  Matt of the Conservative Hideout has some thoughts about American unity. 

Update V:  Chris Wysocki of WyBlog reminds us that we still need patriots.

Update VI:  Edge of the Sandbox is annoyed at Muslim imams getting invited to places they don't really belong.  Preach on, sister.

Update VII:  The Crack Emcee gives us the enduring strength of George W. Bush.  He kept us safe and we ended up hating him for it.

Update VIII:  David Wong of Cracked.com tells the story of how "Loose Change" poisoned the 9/11 tragedy.

Update IX:  Right Hand Man of the superb Sentry Journal talks about heart.

Update X:  Angel of Woman Honor Thyself honors those taken from us on 9/11 with a heart-wrenching piece.

Update XI:  CG Hill takes a look at his September 13th 2001 reaction and fisks it.

Osama bin Laden Finds Out Who's in Charge

The villain of September 11, 2001 has gone to his reward—courtesy of the United States military, specifically US Navy SEALS—while he sat in a Pakistani mansion rather that in an Afghani cave.  Of course, there are reports of it everywhere.

President Obama’s announcement regarding the demise of bin Laden had its usual allotment of first-person singular references, but, for a change, it struck the right tone.  Former President Bush responded as well.

Early this morning, there was celebration outside of the White House gates, reminiscent of the celebration that occurred in the Palestinian Territories in response to 9/11.  One of my Facebook friends compared the celebrations, noting that we two peoples are not that different after all.  Well, he’s right.  All people fall short of the glory of God.

But there is this:  Osama bin Laden continuously attacked US entities outside of the physical country and twice inside of it.  His most successful attacks, in terms of body count, were the synchronized attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the attack for which United Airlines Flight 93 was meant.  He planned them and carried them out because of the god he believed in and served.

Our military had no such motive.  All we wanted to do was to neutralize a threat to our country, personalized in the man who declared war on it in the 1990s in the name of Islam.  And while I question the appropriateness (and the spontaneity) of the mass celebration of our sworn enemy’s demise, it cannot be said that Osama bin Laden was killed in the name of the God of Jews and Christians—not that this will matter to bin Laden’s like-minded co-religionists.

Speaking of them, one wonders how this victory—and it is a victory—will play out in the Muslim world.

Anyway, congratulations to Presidents Obama and Bush, and, most importantly, congratulations to the men of our United States Armed Forces.

UPDATE:  This was inevitable.

Yamasaki's Towers

It bears repeating on today of all days--building sound structures requires work, planning, wisdom and inspiration. Most importantly, a climate must exist in which all of these attributes may flourish:

After years of negotiations, debate, and drawing up and redrawing up of plans, it was decided that the World Trade Center would consist of 15 million square feet of floor space distributed among seven buildings. These would include two towers that would soar over a quarter mile into the sky. The towers would top the Empire State Building by 100 feet. Some people, architects among them, wondered: Could such lofty skyscrapers be built?

'Yes' was the answer of at least one man; one who blossomed in the climate called America:

Minoru Yamasaki was born to Japanese immigrant parents in Seattle in 1912 and studied architecture at the University of Washington in 1932. He then moved to New York to complete his professional education, and established a practice in suburban Detroit, Michigan, in 1945. Yamasaki designed several major Seattle buildings including the Federal Science Pavilion (now Pacific Science Center, 1962), IBM Building (1964), and Rainier Square and tower (1977). He is best known as the chief architect of the World Trade Center (WTC) in New York City. Upon completion in 1976, the WTC’s twin 110-story towers were the world’s tallest buildings. Yamasaki died of cancer in 1986, and was thus spared seeing his greatest work destroyed in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

During WWII, Yamasaki and his parents were protected from FDR's internment by his second employer, Smith, Hinchman, and Grylls.

Allegories and ironies abound.

While his Japanese kinsmen were acting against Americans, Chinese, Filipinos, etc. based on the assumption that the former were ethnically superior, Yamasaki, the American, was living his life according to the American ideal of individual excellence--even as FDR's America was falling monstrously short of that ideal.  And it is pertinent that it took individuals to protect the Yamasakis from their government; for self-interested reasons to be sure, but how much does that matter in view of the results?

The Japanese and persons of Japanese descent (and other East Asians) have a well-deserved reputation for excellence in most any endeavor and it is no secret that this excellence seems to stem from elements of the Japanese culture.  Like very many other ethnic groups, Japanese immigrants to the United States came to America with their cultural baggage--both good and bad--and did what successful new Americans do: they adapted.  They retained the elements of their culture which are compatible with the American Ideal (individual excellence), discarded those elements which were not (ethnic tribalism/supremacy) and, for the most part, passed on the positives to their wholly American progeny.

Yamasaki's Twin Towers were a testament to that success and to the soundness of the American Ideal.

It is indeed a blessing that he did not live to see his masterpieces destroyed by those who hold ethnic and religious tribalism more sacred than individuality, but though Yamasaki and his Towers reside only in our memories now, nothing can destroy what that fine American achieved in a climate created just for men and women like him.

[Re-edited]

(Image courtesy of the Detroit News)

It's Called Vigilance

I'm not seeing a problem with this action:

U.S. Coast Guard and law enforcement sources tell ABC News that shots reported being fired on the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., this morning that set off a scramble by the media and law enforcement agencies, were only a routine training exercise.

There's quite a bit of confusion with the MSM as to what went on this morning on the Potomac, but that is as it should be.  The details regarding the conduction of military exercises should not be the purview of an ignorant and often hostile Big Media in the first place.  Here's why:

Although weapons are mounted on the boat, they are not loaded, Coast Guard sources advised ABC News.

I'm sure that our nemeses who are considering attacking the capital again were thrilled to gain that bit of intelligence.

However, here's where I'm puzzled: why are conservatives mad that the Coast Guard is conducting training exercises on 9/11?  

Forget about what we think of the Commander-in-Chief (for now).  Remember what we know about those who want to see us all converted to Islam or dead: they would just love to commemorate 9/11/2001 with a bigger and better attack.

The fact that our troops were practicing for such an occasion should comfort we who love America, not anger us.  Practice makes perfect.  And our enemies also need to know that we’re not just sitting around crying or cringing in fear in anticipation of the next attack.

Thank you, United States Coast Guard, for your service.

In View of the Day

(Thanks to Mudville Gazette)

Remembrance Day 2007 (UPDATED)

So here it is again. It's September 11th and it's Tuesday. But what does that mean or, rather, what should it mean?

Sure, every time I see video of the attacks I'm angry anew, but what does that anger serve? The anger does subside, but memory remains. Not just the memory of the emotions evoked by the day, but the memory of why that day occurred; of why they hate us.

Good old Osama has submitted a second message for us in as many days. This one features a message from Abu Musab Waleed al-Shehri, one of the hijackers who commandeered American Airlines Flight 11, which collided with the North Tower on the day in question. (It seems that each of the hijackers recorded a "will" before going after those virgins.) Osama--who does like to go on--introduces Al-Shehri's message from the grave, saying that the latter had "helped his religion and pleased his Lord"--whoever al-Shehri's lord may be. As the words of both men are spoken (in Arabic, of course, with English subtitles), the fiery destruction of the Towers can be seen looping in the background.

However, those visions didn't evoke anger in me this time, but scorn and, dare to say, derisive laughter at how little Islamists understand the West as it is personified by America--at least the part of America which refuses to be cowed by such images. The Devil hates to be ridiculed, as C.S. Lewis reminded us in The Screwtape Letters.

Osama and his ilk believe that all we infidels are afraid of dying. Of course, this is false, as demonstrated by the numbers of the men and women who have volunteered to join the US Armed Forces since September 11, 2001--even one Scott Thomas Beauchamp. And, in spite of the recent antics perpetrated by the Left, I think that the "woof tickets" which the Islamists continue to sell have an unintended effect on the vast majority of the American viewing public: it hardens the resolve to defeat them.

I hadn't planned on putting forth an anniversary post today because many of the other commemorations seem to rather wallow in grief and sadness and I didn't want to be a part of that. In the couple of years subsequent to the attacks, the nearly unbearable emotions were understandable. But now I think it's time put away the tears and to remember that we're in this fight for the long haul and that we're in it to make sure that another 9/11 doesn't happen again.

We shouldn't be afraid of dying and, unlike Islamists, we should go on living. By that, I don't mean merely breathing, eating, sleeping and sorrowing over what has been lost, but living well. And keeping watch.

Blessedly for we who live in the USA, we can do both. If we remember that, we can't never be defeated.

UPDATE: I participated in this Zogby poll, am one of those 46 percent of Americans living in the western part of the country who thinks about 9/11 at least once a week and one of the 91 percent who thinks that another attack on the homeland is inevitable--but thinking about such and fearing it are two different things.

However, "remembrance without resistance to jihad and its enablers is a recipe for another 9/11."--Michelle Malkin

BTW, I put up the flag in front of the house at sunrise.

UPDATE: This blog receives a lot of hits from Google searchers who use the key words "PICTURES OF BODIES FROM 9/11." This will invariably take the searcher to my 9/11/2003 post entitled "Fear Itself," in which no bodies of 9/11 victims are featured, of course.

While my first reaction upon discovering this fact was to exhort these searchers to "go away, you ghouls," I reconsidered and now think that reading that post might be helpful to such people. Hey, I can be an optimist on occasion.

UPDATE: On further consideration, I thought that it might be hospitable to add a helpful, directional update at the top of "Fear Itself."

Bill Clinton Strikes Back

…with his finger pointed at the interviewer no less (Fox News’ Chris Wallace). It’s a fascinating clip to watch, especially for those of us who were paying attention in the 1990s when the United States sustained attack after attack from Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda while the former president seemed to want to act against bin Laden’s network of terrorists, but either displayed indecisiveness, put forth ineffectual tactics or spoke of trying to reason with the type of persons who demonstrably did not believe in reason.

If the clip is any indication of the flavor of the entire interview, Former President Clinton twists events around admirably. He claims that “rightwingers” did nothing about terrorism during his tenure in the White House and blasted him for his own efforts. True, without the context of said events: “Rightwingers” did nothing about terrorism in the nineties because they were not sitting in the Executive Office—it wasn’t their place to “do something” about terrorism. It was his. And he was ridiculed for his efforts not because of his failure--as he terms it--but because of his fecklessness which could have lead to no other outcome but failure: some slipshod missile strikes and failing to act when partisans offer to hand bin Laden over to America. These "actions" did indeed incite ridicule. He also claims that his Republican successor did nothing about terrorism in the eight months preceding 9/11. True. But what about the 92 months of the Clinton administration—the time span between the February 1993 World Trade Center attack and the October 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, a span which contained several more al-Qaeda attacks on Americans, including the bombings of two US Embassies--where either nothing was done, ineffectual measures were taken or opportunities were bypassed?

During his administration, the former president wasn’t alone in one area of magnitudinal proportions: he did not understand the cultural mindset of the enemy we now have turned to face. Like many of us back then, he thought that we could live in the manner in which we chose and not interfere (too much) when others chose to live in another way. Addtionally, he (and we) thought that we could carry on with inserting the typical American interventions which had been our staple since World War Two. Germans and Japanese didn’t attack American interests abroad; nor did even Koreans or Vietnamese, so why would some group of Arab/Muslims do it? If one thinks about the shocking visciousness of 9/11 and remembers the plaintive inquiry from numerous quarters who wondered “why they hate us,” the mindset of the attacked victim comes flooding back. We couldn’t comprehend the notion of a group of people hating America (and the West) so much that such a group could inflict such a horrible, large-scale death on so many people.

I couldn’t (though I had a hunch). And I suspect that, before 9/11, most other Americans couldn’t either, in spite of the attacks which heralded 9/11. Could Bill Clinton conceive of such hatred during his presidency? His actions during that time point to a ‘no’ answer. And if one thinks about it and is honest, there is no shame in that. But we understand now—well, at least some of us.

Where there is indeed shame is in President Clinton’s behavior right now. If the video clip is any indication, the former president isn’t about to concede that his acts against terrorists were ineffectual or non-existent. It isn’t that he can’t admit that he was wrong (though that’s part of it). It’s that he can’t admit that he is no longer the perfectly loved and trusted president by a good part of this nation—even by people like me who voted for him twice. His behavior for most of the Bush Administration had even begun to garner more respect for him—especially in contrast to that of his vice-president. But he’s beginning to throw it all away. And the most pathetic part about that is this: most people who were disillusioned by his brands of politics, policy, strategy and tactics with regard to fighting terrorism could even have a modicum of respect for him were he to admit that he had been wrong in that area. But, unless the video clip distorts the nature of the interview, I don’t think that a Bill Clinton mea culpa for his anti-terror measures is in the offing. It was an act that last longer than might have been expected, but it's over now.

Here’s the thing about decisions: sometimes they are wrong and if one is fortunate and canny, only about half of them are. The worst types of decision-makers are these: 1) the one who makes a decision and does nothing or makes only token efforts to see that decision through, and 2) the one who, in the face of the dire need to decide, dithers. (A lesser type of bad decision-maker is the type who makes a decision and does everything possible to see that decision through even in the face of evidence that the original decision was a bad one. Some say that President Bush’s decision to intervene in Iraq was an example of such. Perhaps, but my personal opinion is that the jury’s decision isn’t final on that particular “long, hard slog.”)

Former President Clinton’s decision-making skills, at least as far as the War on Terrorists goes—the war which started long before his presidency and for which it should be acknowledged that his immediate few predecessors, Bush the Elder, Reagan, Carter, and Ford, also didn’t comprehend--fall under those first two categories. And what does that say about him? Nothing, expect that, like most of the rest of us, he didn’t understand the nature of Islamists and that he had bad advisers and/or he didn’t listen to the good ones. But, am I surprised that former president isn’t able to acknowledge his horrid errors in this vital area of the presidency? No, given his demonstrable nature and given the fact that his wife is probably looking to become president in 2008. However, I’m still angered and saddened by it, nonetheless.

I will be watching when the full interview is broadcast on Fox News Sunday two days from now. Perhaps, the clip isn't what it seems to be.

Why I Hate Them

Two men.

Based on the accounts of witnesses and loved ones' knowledge of the two men's characters, a devastating picture emerges of that tragic morning. [SNIP]

When the first plane hit the building, [Abe] Zelmanowitz, 55, and [Edward] Beyea, 42, both systems analysts for Blue Cross Blue Shield, fled the office with their co-workers. The elevators were not working, and Beyea, a 300-pound man in a heavy mechanized wheelchair, could not get down the stairs, which were choked with streams of panicked workers. [SNIP]

"He couldn't have left him," said Zelmanowitz's sister-in-law, Evelyn Zelmanowitz of Flatlands, N.Y. "That's what made Abe, Abe." [SNIP]

Both men were lost in the collapse of the north tower that morning. [SNIP]

There is some indication that they had made it to the 21st floor when the building collapsed. Their bodies have not been recovered.

Why are such men hated?

On that very day, I was sad, then furious and then filled with hate. I don’t feel the latter much any more, but, occasionally, it flairs up again; especially when I read about people like Misters Zelmanowitz and Beyea. Their families have nothing to bury; they only live with the memory of loved persons. And, meanwhile, other men and women are dying for having breathed in the dust of their bodies, along with the dust of their desks, their computers, the dust of Mr. Beyea’s wheelchair, the dust of the building in which they worked, and are dying from just plain grief.

Why don’t we hate them?

Do I hate them—the terrorists who murdered Misters Zelmanowitz and Beyea? No, not most of the time. Nor do I hate their liked-minded living brethren. Do I fear them? Most certainly not, but that’s merely because I learned to not fear those which can kill the body—also because I knew a long time ago that the goal of any terrorist is to instill fear. Can't give them that particular victory.

But why shouldn’t I hate those who would murder such seemingly innocuous, harmless and loving men like Zelmanowitz and Beyea? Because it does nothing for either me or those two men; I’m here and they’re bodies are now an integral part of New York City (along with those of hundreds of others who were never found in the wreckage of the Twin Towers).

So why does the story of these two formerly living men fill me with so much anger?

Because they were simply living well and they should have been left alone to go on living the same way. That they died well and honorably—like so many others on that day—is uplifting in a way, but guess what? I would have preferred that they had gone on living anonymously rather than to have become one of the footnotes in many a 9/11 post like this one.

And that’s why I hate the terrorists. Sometimes. Okay, often.

(Thanks to Pajamas Media)

No Words Necessary

A Jarring Reminder

While watching the news on Sunday morning, I saw Sandy Dahl--widow of Flight 93's lead pilot, Captain Jason Dahl--give an interview about the upcoming movie United 93 and the response to the movie's trailer which is being shown in theaters at present. The interesting thing about Mrs. Dahl is her occupation. She also works for United Airlines—as a flight attendant. One thing that many of us forget is the courage of the flight crews (along with that of the passengers) that resumed status as soon as President Bush allowed commercial and private aircraft back into service.

Even though she was obviously struggling to hold it together emotionally for the camera, Mrs. Dahl was all for the depiction of the events. She said that the heroism of the passengers of that famed flight is being forgotten and that—since they had already known of the attacks on the World Trade Center Towers--we must be reminded of the fact that United Flight 93's passengers and crew gave their lives for our government, such as it is.

Judith Weiss has a roundup of commentary on the new movie. In one of her own posts, she says that United 93 will "separate the men from the boys," and that “it will be a cultural identifier for the group of people who want to win this war and feel surrounded by those who are hostile or indifferent.”

Of note: while perusing the IMDB listing of the cast, I noticed that there are no cast members portraying Captain Dahl, his co-pilot Leroy Homer or Lisa Jefferson, the last still-living person to talk to Flight 93’s most famous passenger, Todd Beamer. Ms. Jefferson reportedly recited the 23rd Psalm with Mr. Beamer—“I will fear no evil”--along with the Lord's Prayer. We’ll see how the existence and actions of these persons are handled, however.

Can you take that as an intention for me to see this movie? Yes, and in the theater, no less. I think that we owe it to any victims of 9/11 to bear witness to any celluloid portrayals of their sacrifice, heroism and most untimely demise. Jim Gerhagty agrees:

If somebody doesn’t want to walk into a theater and watch it and relive all that, I can’t begrudge them. For me... I think I’ll have to see it. It’s almost like attending a memorial service. Periodically, I want to remember, to be reminded of everything of that day, to know what this war we're fighting is all about, and what the world can be during its worst hours and what individuals can be at their finest hours. I wonder how many other folks feel like that.

(Thanks to Pajamas Media)

One of the Worst

José Guardia at Barcepundit remembers those who fell in one of the most horrendous attacks perpetrated during the Global War on Terror(ists).

Of Disasters And Of Peace

On January 28, 1986, during the one of the hourly, ten minute breaks that is a feature of any classroom technical training in the military—in this case I was at DLI learning German--I turned from getting my morning coffee to watch the television as the Challenger was making its ascent. Suddenly—

I’ll never forget the wide eyes, the open mouths that were suddenly a feature of every face in the room; the ‘Oh-my-Gods’ that issued from nearly every mouth. DLI hosts students from each service and nearly all of its language instructors are civilian native-speakers. So it was that in the room I was in, Air Force, Army, Marine, Navy and civilian alike stood stunned—some in tears—as the fate of the Challenger’s crew slowly dawned on the mind of each individual observer.

At the time, I thought no disaster could be so universally traumatic to witness. We all know differently now, of course.

*****

Whenever I have thought of the Challenger disaster, I can’t help but think of the lone civilian member of the crew, Christa McAuliffe. Most of us who were adults then recall the media blitz immediate preceding Mrs. McAuliffe’s mission. As the first civilian (a teacher) to go into space, there was a lot of excitement—and, yes, hype—surrounding the lady’s presence on the Challenger. However, one report stands out in my mind: some interviewer asked Mrs. McAuliffe’s young daughter, Caroline—around five or six at the time—how she felt about her mother going into space. The poor kid was afraid that her mother would never come back.

Over these many years, I have wondered how the now-young woman has been doing and have sent up a prayer for her every now and then, along with all of the others.

*****

Not long after the Columbia disaster, my mother, who works for a Big Media organization, had occasion to meet a brother of one of the crew of the last mission. The upshot of his attitude was this: he hurt and he missed his sister, but he was, at the same time, at peace. His sister died doing something that she loved, had dreamed about and trained for nearly all of her life, and she had been making a positive contribution to her society and to its future.

That’s all any of us can aspire to.

UPDATE: Dr. Sanity was there.

Not Fearing the Reaper

Death. You’re thinking about it; so am I. How to stave it off, how not to die of a painful and/or debilitating illness and, most of all, how not to perish in a disaster, whether that disaster is of human or divine origin.

Surely, you can see the contradiction in that. We exercise, eat right, don’t smoke/quit smoking, use anti-aging potions and have work done to try to look good and keep our old age comfortable, but if we’re going to die young in some large- or small-scale disaster, we don’t have to worry about any of that anyway. Yet, we view dying young as incredibly tragic. So do you want to die old and crochety or young and beautiful? You can't have both, sorry.

The thing is this: we really don’t want to die at all. We want to keep doing what ever it is that is detrimental to our health with no consequences and we want no car crashes, terrorist attacks, hurricanes, or wars to interfere with that. And on top of that, we want to stay young-looking and beautiful forever, like Tolkien’s elves.

And that is why the wailing and the gnashing of the teeth will continue about both 9/11 and Katrina, beyond all appropriate bounds.

On a certain level, it's puzzling, even amusing, all our efforts to put off the inevitable. But, yes, I’m still not smoking, will be in the gym tomorrow and am stepping up disaster preparedness around here. However, my body will still cease to function at some point and I accept that.

But what of us who believe in life beyond the grave, who believe that Jesus is the Savior of mankind? What is there to fear? By definition, nothing.

So, to acknowledge that I don’t fear that which can kill the body, and to acknowledge before men and women that I accept Jesus Christ as Savior, I’m getting baptized today, September 11, 2005.

My pastor said that today would be a good day for baptism: "a good day to stick a finger in the eye of the devil." I prefer to think of it as a good day to give the devil--and death--the finger (just in case you thought I was becoming too holy).

Back later.

UPDATE 5:30 PM PDT: Ah, you guys made me tear up! :-) Thank you.

Just Gone

The “missing” in London.

Jenny Nicholson, 24, the daughter of Rev Julie Nicholson and her husband Gregg from Reading, had just started a new job in the capital. Her parents said that she regularly took one of the commuter services which were targeted. A spokesman for the Bristol diocese said that Mrs Nicholson, who is the priest-in-charge at St Aidan Church in Bristol, was "remarkably calm" [SNIP]

Jamie Gordon, 30, from Enfield, called his office at 9:40am saying he was on a bus from Euston. One his colleagues at City Asset Management said Mr Gordon's mobile phone had been found in the wreckage of the bus. [SNIP]

Shehara Akther Islam, 20, from Plaistow, east London, was probably on the Circle line going through Liverpool Street. She did not arrive at work on Thursday or return to the home where she lived with father Shamsul and mother Shopma. [SNIP]

And dozens more.

(Thanks to My Pet Jawa)

Planes, Trains and Buses (UPDATED ALL DAY)

I woke up thinking that it was the eleventh, for some reason.

Our friends in London get the Israeli treatment.

A series of bomb attacks on London's transport network has killed more than 30 people and injured about 350 others.

Three explosions on the Underground left 33 dead and an unknown number died in a blast on a double-decker bus.

UK Prime Minister Tony Blair promised the "most intense police and security service action to make sure we bring those responsible to justice."

An Islamist website has posted a statement - purportedly from al-Qaeda - claiming it was behind the attacks.

To the Islamist, all are targets, "infidel" and Muslim alike (there are plenty of Muslims in London, no doubt). From Sudan to Iraq, this is quite obvious. I submit that, in the War on Terror, there is no such thing as a “chickenhawk.”

God bless the UK.

UPDATE:

Blackfive:

I saw a woman passing out cups of tea at one disaster scene. An act so stoically English and so defiant at the same time...

Demosophist:

The mother country is being tested by the "Madrid strategy," and I'm reasonably confident that the response will be greater unity and moral clarity rather than less, reflecting yet another miscalculation by the Salafists who consistently underestimate the capacity of their infidel opposition for moral clarity in the face of totalitarian method. England is not new to this game, and has already won a struggle of this sort.

Tim Worstall:

You know, I’m not sure that these people have quite understood us. We’ve just spent 30 years being bombed by a bunch of terrorist nutters. Whatever your views on Irish nationalism, Eire, the rights of the IRA and so on, it is an inescapable truth that there were a series of bombings "on the mainland" and no, it didn’t spread "fear and panic from the north to the south."
No, not even when 21 people were killed in bombs in pubs, not even when thousands of bombs were dropped on London, death falling from the skies on a regular basis.

You’ve just not quite understood us, have you? Any politician who even so much as hinted at the idea that this would be a reason to leave Afghanistan or Iraq would be immediately howled down.

UPDATE:

Greyhawk:

Western Europe and Japan, by virtue of post-WWII rebuilding efforts, enjoy the finest, most advanced mass transit systems on the planet. Their vulnerability to terrorist attack has now been demonstrated repeatedly. From gas attacks in Japan to bombs in Spain and London, civilization's greatest enemies strike at symbols of it's strength that are demonstrably also it's weakness.

But that physical, tangible, and tactical weakness is not their true target. The weak point they aim for in such assaults is the perceived weakness in resolve of the people of the civilized world. In Spain the tactic appeared to get results; a government fell. [SNIP]

Is it time for London to fill it's cavernous subway tunnels with cement to ensure they are never attacked again? Is it time for the world to abandon mass transit as an unacceptably risky business altogether?

And what else should we surrender or abandon, to ensure we'll always be safe?

My answers are brief. "No" and "Nothing". The rest of the world will respond too, I'm sure.

London Mayor Ken Livingstone (even):

"I know that you personally do not fear to give your own life in exchange to taking others ... but I know you do fear you may fail in your long-term objective to destroy our free society ... in the days that follow, look at our airports, look at our seaports and look at our railway stations ... you will see that people from the rest of Britain, people from around the world, will arrive in London to become Londoners, to fulfill their dream and achieve their potential … whatever you do, however many you kill, you will fail."

(Thanks to Silent Running, Tim Blair and Glenn Reynolds. The latter two have an abundance of links on this subject.)

UPDATE: Via Jeff Goldstein, we find this:

REPORT: One UK Homicide Bomber Was Recent GITMO Release

7 July 2005; 12:54 ET: Preliminary reports from a source inside the Pentagon indicate that one of the operatives involved in this morning's bombings in London was recently released from the prison at Guantanamo. DEVELOPING…

We await the commentary of those who call for the closure of Guanatanamo Bay.

UPDATE: Meant to be worse and maybe not all suicide bombers.

U.S. authorities tell ABC News that British police have recovered two unexploded bombs from the scene of the terror attacks in London.

In addition, British investigators say that parts of timing devices have been recovered from the blast scene that would have been used to detonate an explosive device. This could provide evidence that would help determine who was behind the attacks, sources told ABC News.

UPDATE: Defiant (I think we'll go with the unedited version):

[I]f this is a message to Tony Blair, we've got news for you. We don't much like our government ourselves, or what they do in our name. But, listen very clearly. We'll deal with that ourselves. We're London, and we've got our own way of doing things, and it doesn't involve tossing bombs around where innocent people are going about their lives.

And that's because we're better than you. Everyone is better than you. Our city works. We rather like it. And we're going to go about our lives. We're going to take care of the lives you ruined. And then we're going to work. And we're going down the pub.

So you can pack up your bombs, put them in your arseholes, and get the fuck out of our city.

(Thanks to Michael Totten)

UPDATE: Guess who is in London today.

Rudolph Giuliani, the former Mayor of New York so closely identified with his city's recovery after September 11 attacks, was in London this morning, just yards from Liverpool Street station when the bombs went off.

Mr Giuliani, who was given an honorary knighthood by the Queen in recognition of his leadership in 2001 said today's events strongly recalled the attacks on the World Trade Centre.

"They are a very eerie reminder of September 11. I was right near Liverpool [Street] station when the first bombing took place, so I could hear the sirens and then kept hearing reports of different bombings, in different parts of the city," he told Sky News television.

Remembrance Day

Many pundits--professional and otherwise--have compared December 7, 1941 to September 11, 2001. The only comparison that means anything, however, is how committed the attacked are to making the enemy think twice about doing it again.

God rest the souls of the Fallen: those of 63 years ago, of three years ago and all those in between.

Family Reunited

I was a little hesitant to post this really sad article from the Washington Post, but some things are necessary. Often, we have to be reminded of that which is important, especially now, when we’re bogged down in the quagmire: the presidential campaign.

The attacks of September 11, 2001 are still claiming casualties.

Kenneth Edelle Foster, 51, a retired Army sergeant whose wife lost her life at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, died Oct. 10 at his home in Arlington, Tex., of pulmonary fibrosis and congestive heart failure. He had lived in the Washington area since 1972 and moved back to North Texas, where he grew up, in 2003.

A civilian Army policy analyst, Mr. Foster was working in his office in the Hoffman Building in Alexandria on Sept. 11 when he got word that a plane had hit the Pentagon, where his wife, Sandra Nadine Hill, had worked for 25 years. He jumped into his truck and raced toward the billowing black cloud he could see in the distance, going the wrong way on Interstate 95. [SNIP]

Mr. Foster sank into a debilitating depression after his wife's death. He tried to commit suicide two months later on his favorite holiday, Thanksgiving. After he survived a game of Russian roulette while home alone that day, he sought help and was admitted to the intensive care unit at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He then went to counseling twice a week, started reaching out to the many people concerned about him and decided to move back to Texas. He told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that staying in the Washington area meant he was dying slowly each day as he relived the events of Sept. 11.

He set up a $25,000 annual college scholarship named for his wife, given to a senior girl from a District public school. His wife, he told The Post in 2002, valued education above everything else.

Mr. Foster had planned to travel to Washington on Sept. 16 for the second annual fund-raising banquet in his wife's memory, where he planned to award another Sandra Nadine Hill Scholarship. [SNIP]

He was hospitalized shortly before he was to leave and was unable to make the trip.[SNIP]

Mr. Foster's friends and family were fully aware of the seriousness of his lung disease, which got worse after he lost his wife, but they don't believe his illness caused his death.

"He could have got over his physical ailments, I believe," his mother said, "but he just didn't want to live. He died of a broken heart. We all know that."

During my search of Mrs. Foster’s name, I came upon her picture: a slim, friendly-faced black woman (I’ll do the living Fosters the courtesy of not posting the photo here).

She and Mr. Foster had been married for quite some time but never had any children of their own. On September 11th, the couple had had an appointment with an adoption agency. We all know what happened instead.

Affirming life, while monsters planned to execute her; destroying her husband and killing him later.

When you read this story and after you shed those tears, remember who it is that has avenged these deaths and the thousands of others. Remember who took the fight to the terrorists and who didn’t. (And who may or may not want to.)

Are we safer now than before? Time will tell. However, one thing is for sure: no amount of diplomacy, appeasement, or backing-down will work for an enemy intent on dying and taking good people like the Fosters (and you) with them.

Consider that on November 2, 2004.

Patriot Day

But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Matthew 24:43 (KJV)

580 MPH

A fast exit to Heaven for some and to Hell for others (registration required):

Of the 33 passengers on the plane who were not hijackers, at least 10, and two crew members, spoke to people on the ground. At least five of the calls included discussion of the World Trade Center. At 9:57, about seven minutes before the end, one of the passengers ended her conversation saying: "Everyone's running up to first class. I've got to go. Bye."

The [9/11 Commission] report indicates that [hijacker] Mr. Jarrah, at the controls of United 93, did what many airline pilots have fantasized about since the hijackings: tried to maneuver the plane sharply, rolling and pitching, to keep control of the cockpit. It apparently did not work; the plane crashed in rural Pennsylvania.

The report does not clarify whether the hijackers' goal for Flight 93 was the White House or the Capitol, but indicates that the hijackers tuned a cockpit radio to the frequency of a navigation beacon at National Airport, just across the Potomac River from the capital, erasing any doubt about the region of their intended destination.

At three seconds after 10 a.m., Mr. Jarrah is heard on the cockpit voice recorder saying: "Is that it? Shall we finish it off?"

But another hijacker responds: "No. Not yet. When they all come, we finish it off."

The voice recorder captured sounds of continued fighting, and Mr. Jarrah pitched the plane up and then down. A passenger is heard to say, "In the cockpit. If we don't we'll die!"

Then a passenger yelled "Roll it!" Some aviation experts have speculated that this was a reference to a food cart, being used as a battering ram.

Mr. Jarrah "stopped the violent maneuvers" at 10:01:00, according to the report, and said, "Allah is the greatest! Allah is the greatest!"

"He then asked another hijacker in the cockpit, `Is that it? I mean, shall we put it down?' to which the other replied, `Yes, put it in it, and pull it down.' "

Eighty seconds later, a hijacker is heard to say, "Pull it down! Pull it down!"

"The hijackers remained at the controls but must have judged that the passengers were only seconds from overcoming them," according to the report, which seems to indicate that the hijackers themselves crashed the plane. "With the sounds of the passenger counterattack continuing, the aircraft plowed into an empty field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at 580 miles per hour, about 20 minutes' flying time from Washington, D.C," according to the report.

72 virgins, right? Did the fine-print say what species of virgins they were? I hope that it is the hijackers that are the promised virgins--to virgin elephants: "never had none of that human stuff." That would be the least of their deserved punishments.

(Thanks to Michelle Malkin)

Still Standing...

...if only in our memories.

Fear Itself

UPDATE (9/11/2010): Re-posted via Amplify.com.

UPDATE (9/11/2007): All you folks looking for pictures of the dead bodies of 9/11 victims will be sadly disappointed. Now, unless you want to read something about fear and the nature of terrorists, I'd suggest that you move along. There's nothing to see here.

In Esquire , in a moving and draining article on the “Falling Man,” the subject of an iconic photo of one of those who jumped from the burning World Trade Center Towers on September 11, 2001, Tom Junod ponders the merits and morality of showing the more graphic images resulting from the attack.

Most decent people, understandably, don’t want to see such images, nor do they want them thrust before them constantly in the televised or print media. I’m one of them, to a point.

Junod recounts Peter Cheney’s attempts to identify the “Falling Man,” who is believed to have jumped from the restaurant Windows on the World in Tower One. The man was dark-skinned, thought to be a Puerto Rican, an Indian or a light-skinned black man and Junod tells of the anguish of several families who might have been that of the jumper. Of course, none of the families wants it to be their guy and some of Cheney’s bull-in-china-shop methods used to learn the man’s identity are disgusting.

But for all of the horror and grief at their loved ones’ deaths, for all the Christian anguish for the souls of their loved ones—would God view such an act as suicide?—I sensed a different kind of anguish. It emanates not only from the families, but from the media and, yes, indeed from all of us. No, not the fear of the pain the victims must have suffered, but the fear that the terrorists may inflict even more suffering.

Could fear be the root of exhortation to “move on?” Will “moving on” help us to forget the stuff of nightmares, the images that the American media (correctly) won’t show; the imaginings of burned bodies, crushed bodies, parts of bodies, bodies that are no longer bodies, but dust?

Terrorists commit their acts not for the benefit of the dead, but for those who remain alive. “Look at what we’ll do to you and yours,” they say, “if you don’t do what we want you to do.” They revel in our horror. They rejoice in the sorrow of the families who will never bury the atomized bodies of their loved ones. They say, “yeah, we did it and we’ll do it to you unless you….submit.”

Does anyone remember the story of Emmett Till? Several years before I was born, Till, fourteen-years-old, was the victim of another set of terrorists. This young black man, not knowing or not caring about the ways of the South of that period, was murdered for allegedly making an indecent remark to a white woman.

He disappeared and, days later, his body, beaten and shot, was found in a river. The men who were tried for his murder were acquitted.

Emmett’s murder wasn’t an isolated case of a man supposedly defending the honor of his wife. As we know, all over the South, black men were being murdered for “stepping out of their place,” whether they actually had stepped out of their “place” or not. Those who committed these crimes did so not only for “revenge” on the dead, but to send a message to and strike fear in the living.

That’s what made it terrorism. Sound familiar?

In 2001 (and 1968 and 1979 and 1983 and 1988 and 1993 and 1998 and 2003 and every year in between), the players are different from that of 1955, but the message is the same: do what we want or this will happen to you or to those whom you love. In this case, it is “worship in the way we worship; bow five times a day to Mecca or else.”

I mention the Till case not to compare the two sets of terrorists, per se, but to compare the dissimilar reactions of the victims’ loved ones.

Mamie Till, Emmett’s mother, had an open-casket funeral for her son. The photo (warning: it's graphic) of the body, which astoundingly for any time, much less 1955, was published in Jet Magazine. The first time I saw the horrifying photo of young Till's mutilated head, I threw up. The head--monstrous from the beating, the bullet and the decomposition--contrasted against the normalcy of the casket and the suit that Mrs. Till had picked out for the body. It gave the picture that much more ugliness: your worst nightmare in banal black and white.

But Mamie Till’s steely words about the open-casket decision were electrifying: “I want the world to see what they did to my son.”

Well, the “world” did see and, though there was much more sorrow to be had--as it is with any major upheaval of a society--things changed. Some of us even think that things have changed for the better…such home-grown types of terrorists still exist, but when caught, they usually sit on death row rather sit at home having beers with their friends. We can send our message as well.

Though we should acknowledge and, sometimes, accede to the wishes of the bereaved families as far as the pictures of the 9/11 carnage are concerned, they should feel no shame at how their family member met his/her fate. (And my personal opinion is that God is a far more understanding Guy than we often give Him credit for.)

Most of all, neither they, nor we, can afford to let the horror of that day plunge us into fear. Why not?

That is what they want us to feel; that is the terrorists’ main goal.

Fear will keep us from acting boldly and decisively against them.

Our unabated fear, taken to its ultimate conclusion, would have us bowing down five times a day toward Mecca. Not me, baby. And, I'm comfortable in the assumption that a lot of Indians, Israelis and Americans feel the same way.

Message to terrorists: You Failed.

(Photos of Emmett Till courtesy of Stanford University and African American Holocaust)

Remembrance Day Musings

Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs and Michele at A Small Victory have both provided means for ordinary folks to tell their personal perceptions of the September 11, 2001 attacks. I told my story at LGF and here.

The Flag

That got me to thinking about a particular trend that occurred in the aftermath: American flags were everywhere all of a sudden.

Initially, I was heartened by the proliferation of American flags and flag stickers on cars. Every street vendor in LA had flags for sale. After something so vile, people began to see how much this country really meant to them and wanted to show it, or so I thought.

But as the months wore on, I noticed that some of the flags on the car antennas were becoming frayed—an anathema to a military member; torn and/or dirty flags are to be disposed of properly (last item)—and the stickers were fading due to weather.

The flag fad had faded. (Sorry for the alliteration.)

A year after the attacks, I decided that I wanted to buy a flag sticker for my car. Not a street vendor in sight had one. I did end up finding and buying one, at the Base Exchange, of course. But then I decided that my military sticker tells anyone all they needed to know about me.

Asshat Outs Himself

That day, watching the ABC News coverage of the attacks—no satellite then--I listened as Peter Jennings suddenly went into a petulant whine about the whereabouts of the president. Imagine the gall of President Bush! How dare he not send the esteemed Mr. Jennings an itinerary of Air Force One’s flight plan in the wake of the worst enemy attack on American soil! Who does the president think he is?

In disgust, I switched to NBC or CBS for the coverage (don’t remember which). From that day to this one, the sound of Jennings’ voice has had a rather bile-producing effect on me.

Love and No-Love for the Brother/Sisterhood

Since the day, my military compatriots and I regale each other with accounts of the spontaneous outpourings of gratitude we get from civilians. Believe me, it’s appreciated, folks, though, unlike this guy, the most dangerous thing that I’ve had to do since 9/11 is drive on Southern California freeways.

The love is especially cherished by those of us who were in the military when we routinely caught crap (see my account of being called the n-word while in uniform.)

In this vein, the worst crap that I’ve caught recently, was flung one morning at a Starbucks™ close to UC Riverside. The counter person, a young blond woman with hair nearly as short as mine, had a smile for everyone; everyone except for my BDU-clad self, that is. When I stepped to the counter to place my order, I noticed that her smile had changed to a rather sour expression. So, just to give her a little needle, I smiled and gave her a chipper “Good Morning!” loud enough to be sure that she heard it. (Take my word for it, a smile and a “good morning” are not easy to be had from me before my first cup of coffee, though I try to treat customer service personnel well.)

No answer. Heh. So, I placed my order--Venti soy mocha; no whip, please--she gave me the total and I paid her. I capped it off with an exaggerated “thank you! Have a nice day!” Still nothing from the little twit. Laughing, I turned around and, before I could make my way to the receiving counter, the man behind me, who obviously had seen the whole little drama, stuck out his hand, said, “thank you for your service,” and shot Ms. Personality a look of disgust.

I was floating the rest of the day.

My Black Day

September 11, 2001, being my day off, I woke up later than usual, around 6:30. I got my coffee, showered and was puttering around in my underwear when my eighty-year-old great-aunt called.

She was hysterical. “Turn on the TV! Someone ran a plane into the World Trade Center in New York!" Sure that she had, somehow, gotten it wrong (she was eighty, after all), I switched on the TV just in time to see a film of the second airplane hitting Tower number two. “Oh my God!" I said. “Arabs did this! I know they did it," I said to my aunt. Not long afterward, Tower number two crumbled to the ground. I was immediately in tears and I don’t cry easily. “It is ON! Those Arab bastards straight fucked-up this time." We stayed on the phone for about two hours more commenting, raging and consoling. Then I hung up. I stayed glued to the TV for a couple hours more. Then, though I was, somehow, exhausted, I got my clothes on and went outside.

I remember those moments when no one knew how many more hijacked aircraft were in the sky. I remember the report of two other crashed aircraft, one into the Pentagon and one somewhere in Pennsylvania--near Shanksville, as we now know. (I tried not to think of the friend that works in the Pentagon, to whom I had sent an e-mail as soon as I found out. Thankfully, it was his day off also.) Those moments were like the anticipation of the end of the world. One of the planes had been bound for Los Angeles and I lived ten miles from LAX, right under the air lanes. Did the terrorists have something more in store for us savage infidels, something worse, some grand nuclear finale? Who knew then?

With those unnerving thoughts in mind, I stepped out of my house and it was quiet. Now, I lived in the South Central LA ‘hood, where it’s never quiet, especially at midday. But this day was different. It was Dead Quiet. No planes in the sky (President Bush had grounded all aircraft hours before), no traffic on the street, nor did I hear any traffic from the highway two blocks away. No dogs barking, no children playing. Nothing but the eerie, booming echo of jet engines that were no longer making their way into LAX; like the aftermath of some gigantic explosive.

It seemed as if the whole world was waiting for the other shoe to drop. It was like the stillness preceding a violent earthquake that most southern Californians recognize. Any minute I expected a rogue airplane to come barreling out of the sky and plunge into LAX. Or, worse yet, a blindingly bright flash, then no more.

I’ll never forget that day as long as I live and I hope those who perpetrated the attacks are burning in hell right now. My day, however, was nothing compared to those who died horrible, crushing, burning, falling deaths, or live with the resulting disfigurements, physical and emotional. My day was nothing compared to those that lost their parents, their children, their spouses. Even whole families died on some of the airplanes. Little children, taking their first airplane trips were murdered on some of the airplanes. Men who will never see their then yet unborn children, pregnant women (a twofer for the jihadis); fire-fighters—whose job it is to save lives—blown to bits and for what? My day was nothing compared to theirs.

Yet, there are still people, other jihadis that would like nothing better than to finish the job.

I think I’ll go to the range tomorrow and practice with my nine mil.