>Thinking About 9/11
Ron DuBois Bogota, New Jersey
Earlier this evening, Thursday, September 8th, I was at a moderated event in New York City. The moderator was pundit and author Michael Medved, and the speakers were former Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld; former White House Press Secretary, Ari Fleischer; and former Attorney General, Michael Mukasey, who prosecuted the blind Sheik for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. They spoke about the upcoming 10th anniversary of 9/11, the intervening years since 2001, and the current war on terrorism.
All three were basically in agreement, that while Spain, India, England, and other places, have suffered terrible terrorist attacks in the last few years, the U.S. has avoided them. This has not been due to a lack of effort by the terrorists – remember the “shoe bomber”, the Christmas Day “underwear bomber”, and the truck bomb in Times Square. (Gee, how imaginative our Media is, with titles I would expect from seamy rags.) Our intelligence agencies, all jokes aside, and police, have actually done a tremendous job of protecting us, preventing dozens of plots from reaching fruition, in spite of hinderence from the White House and the Department of Jokers, er, I mean Justice. The attempts listed above were prevented by a combination of the bombers own stupidity and brave American civilians, in spite of Janet Napolitano’s declaration that “the system worked”.
The speakers recalled exactly where they were and what they were doing when the planes hit the Twin Towers. Mr. Fleischer was with the President, Secretary Rumsfeld was in the Pentagon, and felt the shock of the plane hitting it, and Attorney General Mukasey, I believe, was at home. They also spoke of current U.S. policy in the Middle East and Africa, echoing my own opinions perfectly. Egypt was at peace with Israel, and no threat to us, yet President Obama helped depose Mubarak, opening the door for the Muslim Brotherhood. While Syria and Iran are threats, and Turkey is becoming one, our White House and State Department have been slow to react, and Libya, no threat at all to us, or to the Middle East, became the victim of NATO attacks on the Qadaffi government. Now, I don’t like Qadaffi much, but there’s a good chance the new government will be worse. What’s more, President Obama did not go to Congress for consent, even after the 60-day maximum under the War Powers Act was exceeded. Just to remind folks, there are only three, clearly itemized, reasons the President may use the War Powers Act, and the situation in Libya was not one of them.
At the end, the speakers fielded questions from the audience, and from 25 satellite viewing places around the country. The question that gave me pause was, “What happened to all the unity and flags and patriotism that was displayed after 9/11?” Here in New Jersey, where I live, it lasted over a year; what surprised me, according to Secretary Rumsfeld, was that in Washington it only lasted about three months. After that, it was back to “business as usual”. I think it is sad, that so many Americans have failed to continue the high level of patriotism that followed 9/11, but even sadder that many in Washington, who represent us at home, and our country to the world, could not hold their unity together for more than Three months.