September 11, 2001

Lest We Forget

As I sat through a rather long, albeit interesting class on Safety Focus on the anniverary of Septemeber 11, 2001 I asked myself "... have we forgotten that terrible event and the people who had brought such violence to our shores?" As we spent a moment in silence to commemorate that event and the heroic and innocent who perished then, it was clear that we had not so much forgotten as we had distanced ourselves from it. These were such terrible, incomprehensible acts that, as time and experience intervened these events  begin to seem hazzier, more unclear than at their moment of high relief.

At the time it was clear; we had been visiously attacked, thousands of our best and brightest, most heroic and dedicated had perished, for no good reason than that thugs and murderers who hide themselves in the cloak of their Holy War had desired it. We drew upon our greatest angels of conscience to say that we would pick up the pieces, we would rebuild what had been destroyed, we would band together as a nation and overcome this terrible thing, and we would stand together as a nation and dedicate ourselves to hunting down and capturing, or killing, the animals who had done this thing. We saw clearly then the difference between a nation that cares for it's fallen and a gang of thugs who sends their own into death without regard for the lives that such acts affect.

Now, two years later, in the height of our political season there are those invovled in that process who seem to have lost their vision in the fog of political warfare. While yet our warriors are in harms way on foreign soils, hunting and defending us from the thugs who attacked us and the fellow-travelers-of-terror who support and befriend them, there are those in the political arena who seem to be saying that we should not be doing this. We should not defend our citizens in the most effective manner possible, but rather we should wait until our enemies strike at us on our home shores once more. There are even those who give the same moral suasion to the cause of killing innocent children and civilians as we give to those who heroically defend us, their brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, sons and daughters.

I was disappointed to hear, from the lips of one of my own children some of the arguments that these fellow-travelers-of-terror use: They are just warriors in the opposite cause... we deal death and destruction on them... it's all about the oil... and found myself sickened to know that he was hearing this not from our enemies, but from those who profess to "love" this country. I found myself in the unenviable position of having to stand back from my own child and tell him, though I respected his right to an opinion and to a political disagreement, I could not countenance him fellow-traveling with terrorists.

So what is fellow-traveling with terrorists? The answer is simple. Terrorism is not a political philosophy, it is a battle tactic to support a strategic objective. That decision is that the war is to be carried to all levels of the enemy's society and social structure. That no one in the society of their enemy is exempt from attack, is innocent enough of political or philosophical enmity to be regarded with respect. In the history of warfare, it is only in the last 50 years that "terror" as a tactic in-and-of-itself has been outlawed by civilized nations. During World War II we, as a world, saw the terrible consequences of a world that universally took the decision to carry warfare to all levels of the social structures of their enemies. Almost 100 million people were killed, 6 million Jews, 20 million Russians and Eastern Europeans, Millions of others in almost 100 nations were subjected to wholesale warfare. It was arguably the worst episode in the history of the world, and arguably one of its greatest moments. Albeit late, the greater part of the world took up arms against tyrannical nations who committed themselve to total warfare against any who stood in their way and defeated them, with total warfare.

We, as a nation, and a culture have committed to the principle that we will not engage in "terror" against innocents as a battle tactic. Our enemies have not. Simply put, that means that our only hope of defeating them is to root them out into the open wherever they are and deal with them openly. That will not now, nor will it ever be easy. We will lose many in that battle. We will sometimes seem to be on the ropes. We will suffer defeats even. They will hide in the shadows, coming into the light only briefly and only at a time when they think they can inflict damage. Our victories will often be dark and secret because in the dark and secret places our enemies hide we do not want them to be alert to our presence. But it is a battle that no one in this country can ever think should not be fought. The reason for that is simple also. Should we not fight this battle, then we will either be forced to become the people who are our enemies, or they will kill us. I would really like those in the political arena to look at that reality and examine it closely. Where does that leave you if you, personally, do not wish to become a radical Islamist?