Where Were You When The World Stopped Turning...?

My blog page has been inaccessible for a few days so I didn't get a chance to write the one on Syria that I wanted.  It appears that's OK because it seems the President has found an out for not bombing Syria - for now.  Although he still wants Congress to give him the authority to do it if he so chooses.  I'm not going to speculate on what may happen with that but I will say I have no faith in Syria turning over control of all WMDs to the U.N. nor do I have faith in Vladimir Putin brokering any lasting agreement that involves weapons.  To my knowledge Russia hasn't kept an agreement with us once in my lifetime.

So my topic today will be the 12th anniversary of September 11, 2001 - the day Islam brought war to us in a big way.  Like many other historic events - most of us will never forget where we were and what we were doing that morning.  I was in the morning meeting at work.  When I returned to my office my secretary told me about the first plane hitting the tower.  I wondered how such a tragedy could have happened in this day and age but never thought of terrorism.  I turned on the TV in my office to watch the coverage.

It wasn't but five or six minutes before the second plane hit the other tower.  It was extremely obvious to me at that point.  The only real question was "Who?" Islamic jihadists were my first choice because they seem to be the only ones who are willing to sacrifice themselves for their cause.  (I've often said that very few Americans would ever have the cojones to blow themselves up for their cause.  We just don't do that.)

2,996 people were killed by Muslim terrorists during those hijackings and the United States was attacked. Like him or not - then President George W. Bush immediately took actions to prevent it from happening again, creating and/or increasing counter intelligence agencies that do nothing but monitor terrorist activity and seek out those who would do us harm.  He created the Transportation Security Administration which could have been a useful agency had they not been allowed to run amok.  Instead of strip searching kids and grandmas they could be profiling people who are likely candidates for terrorist activities, as Israel does. When's the last time you remember a terrorist bomber getting on a plane from Tel Aviv?

Bush passed the Patriot Act - a controversial piece of legislation that gave the government the authority to monitor phone calls and wire transfers of money by or to suspected terrorists or sympathizers.  Again, like it or not, his strategies worked to foil numerous terrorist plots in the US over the next 8 years.  In fact, the next terrorist attack on US soil was when Nadal Hasan killed 13 soldiers at Fort Hood on November 5th, 2009, while screaming "Allahu Ackbar!"  But the Obama administration refused to allow it to be called terrorism so they called it a simple case of workplace violence.  (Hasan has recently made the Obama administration look ridiculous by telling the jury in court that he is a member of the Taliban and he killed the 13 soldiers for that cause.)  As President Obama once said...  "You can put lipstick on a pig but it's still a pig."  He says classy things like that - sometimes about other people.

Americans commemorate 9/11 for the tragic loss of American life (as well as people from other countries) and for the fact that we were suddenly and viciously attacked.  To borrow from Franklin Roosevelt - it's "a day that will live in infamy." And now that day has been immortalized again by the attack on our consulate in Benghazi, Libya, last year that killed our Libyan ambassador and three other Americans.  The main difference in that attack and the one in 2001 is the shameful way it was handled and the lies and cover-ups that have gone on since then.

The Obama administration and the next Democrat presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, did everything wrong during and after the attack.  And we have yet to get answers as to what really happened.  The answers range from the ridiculous "It was over a video" to the BS "It was a terrorist attack but we didn't know it at the time" to the possibility that Ambassador Stevens was brokering a gun running operation for the Syrian rebels (probably the closest to the truth) and the Libyans got them.  Either way - the Obama administration and Mrs. Clinton dishonor those men with their lies.  And Mrs. Clinton's cold and disrespectful question during the Congressional hearing "What difference, at this point, does it make?" should be enough to keep her out of the White House permanently.  Sadly, many Americans will still vote for her thinking she really cares about them.

On this day of remembrance, if you're a believer in Holy God, say a prayer for the families of all 9/11 victims, including the four from last year, and for those heroic first responders who risked (and those who gave) their lives trying to save as many people as possible.  I have friends and family who were there helping out.  I know they'll never forget it.

God bless all of you and God bless the United States of America.