Browse the archives:

9/11/03

WORLD WAR IV

I'm not particularly fond of anniversaries of major news events.  They contribute to journalistic laziness.  Today in newspapers and on television and radio we will hear endless quotes from a seemingly endless collection of people who lost relatives or who were in some way affected by the Islamic attacks two years ago.

There!  Did you see that little word I snuck in there?   The "I" word.  Islamic.  You are going to hear the "terrorist" word hundreds of times today, but just for grins why don't you see how many times you hear "Islamic" tagged on.  We don't, after all, want to offend all of the followers of this wonderful "religion of peace," do we?

September 11, 2003 would be a good day for Americans to remind themselves that we are at war.  It's World War IV.  World War III was the war against Soviet Communist Imperialism.  That war was won when Ronald Reagan forced the Soviet Union to spend itself into near fiscal collapse.  Now it's WWIV, the war against Islamic terrorism.

Perhaps people fail to see this as yet another world war because we don't have daily reports of troop landings and advances.  There are no weekly videos of landing craft disgorging American troops on enemy beachheads. 

Our World War IV enemies don't drive tanks.  They drive rusted out Toyotas loaded with explosives.  They don't march with combat rifles, they sneak around corners with bombs strapped to their chests ... the bombs they haven't already strapped to their children. They don't concentrate their attacks on Americans in uniform, now they target women, the elderly, children and infants ... following bin Laden's exhortations to "kill Americans wherever you find them." 

There are other, perhaps more dangerous differences between the conduct of World War II and World Wars III and IV.  In World War III, the Cold War, we had a political contingent that wanted America to throw down its arms and walk away from the battle.  These people, followers of the American Socialist, Communist and Democratic Parties, called for unilateral disarmament.  They objected every time America went forward to confront Soviet expansionism around the world.  Then, when the war was done, they tried to deny the victory, such was their dismay at the fall of Soviet communism.

In World War IV the very same people who worked for the appeasement now dedicate themselves to inhibiting our progress in fighting Islamic terrorism.  America under George Bush, and with the help of our British allies, has routed the protectors of bin Laden, the Taliban, from Afghanistan.  The threat of Saddam Hussein's weapons programs have been removed.  Hussein's terrorist training camps have been shut down. Al Qaeda and the Islamic terrorists are on the run.  Instead of spending their time planning horrendous attacks on innocent Americans, they spend their days avoiding capture or death at the hands of American troops. Instead of fanning out around the globe to target innocent civilians, Islamic terrorists are saying howdy to the 101st Airborne in Iraq.  Bush has caused the enemy to focus its attention on our fighting forces instead of our innocent civilians, and this is, according to most Democrats, a bad thing.

Al Qaeda leadership has been decimated.  Osama bin Laden if alive, is reduced to threats delivered by audio tape.  The connections between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda operatives is now recognized by all but the most vociferous anti-Americans.  The facts are clear.  Saddam Hussein was training Islamic terrorists at Salman Pak training facility south of Baghdad.  The CIA knows it, Iraqi defectors have confirmed it, and American troops have discovered documentary evidence that backs it up.  Yet the Democrats continue to refer to this convincing evidence as "hyped" and "exaggerated." 

In virtually all the previous world wars Americans fought to protect our allies in Europe.  In this war we fight to get help from many of those we saved with American lives in years past.  Most egregious among the ungrateful is France.  America has saved France from occupation and domination by Germany, today France opposes our battle against our new Islamic enemy, an enemy it funded, in an attempt to protect its investments in the Arab world.

Remembering on this day those who died two years ago is a good thing.  To remember why they died would be a good thing also.  They died because of Islamic terrorism.  They died because a murderer named Osama bin Laden told his followers in 1998 that " .. to kill all Americans and their allies -- civilians and military -- is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it.."  You probably don't know it, but at the very time Osama bin Laden was issuing that "fatwa" to kill Americans and their allies, Saddam Hussein was handing hundreds of thousands of dollars to bin Laden's chief deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri.  So much for the leftist lie that Saddam Hussein had no connection with bin Laden and Al Qaeda.

One year ago, on the first anniversary of September 11th, I wrote an essay entitled "Time to Decide."  I want to say many of the same things today ... perhaps it's easier just to send you back to those notes.  Click hear to read it one more time.

OSAMA TAPE?

Come on now.  Now we have a video of Osama bin Laden released on this 9/11 anniversary?  The purpose, of course, is to give heart and encouragement to the Islamic terrorists in their quest to kill as many Americans, "wherever you find them," as possible.  Just one question.  If Osama bin Laden is going to have a little promotional video tape produced, why not insert just one little item in that tape that would absolutely prove that it was of current vintage, not just some file footage saved by some sycophant. 

I think he's dead.  It would be so easy for them to prove otherwise, and they haven't done so.  It's a shame.  It would be much better if he were alive so we could find him and kill him.

NO COMMERCIAL PRESENCE AT GROUND ZERO

I heard some discussion this morning about the plans for memorials on the former site of the World Trade Towers.  Several interested parties registered their opposition to any commercial presence on the actual footprint of the two towers.  The message is clear, a commercial presence would soil the memory of those who died on that site two years ago.

We've heard this message before.   The conventional wisdom seems to be that there is something dirty, something demeaning about allowing  anything that smacks of free enterprise to infringe on American sacred.  This must make America's socialists and assorted anti-capitalists quite happy indeed.  For decades they've been on a campaign to smear capitalism and free enterprise as something dirty, something to be ashamed of, something to be swept under the rug when polite company comes to call.

The World Trade Towers were attacked by Islamic terrorists precisely because it was a symbol for capitalism, for commercialism.  The Islamic goons wanted to add this symbol of free enterprise to their other targets, the seat of U.S. military and political power.  Now we honor the purpose of the Islamic terrorists by banning any representation of capitalism from the site of their attack.  Victory for the Islamic terrorists ... and it's a victory for the anti-capitalistic faction of American politics.

REVISITING THE TAX EXEMPTIONS

You do remember, don't you, that the families of those who died in the terrorist attacks of 9/11 received a federal tax exemption for the years 2000 and 2001.  On that very same day in September of 2001 a few hundred people died in tragic accidents across America that had nothing to do with terrorism.  These accident victims left spouses, parents and children who were every bit as devastated by their loss as were the families of the victims of the terrorist attacks.  I'm just wondering today how these families felt about having to go forward with the payment of their tax liabilities while the families of terrorist victims got a two-year free pass.  Can anyone defend our government differentiating between victims in this manner?

AND FINALLY ... THE HILDABEAST

Hillary Clinton was making the TV rounds this morning getting her two-cents worth in on the second anniversary of the terrorist attacks.  Watching her I couldn't help but wonder how many of those who died two years ago today would still be working in their offices at the World Trade Towers if her husband had just done his damned job.  You can't say it any plainer than that.

READING ASSIGNMENTS

The Wall Street Journal says that $87 billion is a bargain price to prevent another 9/11. 

This is the second time ABC News has done this ... they brought a shipment of depleted uranium into the United States completely undetected by Customs or security officials.  This time the shipment came into the port of Los Angeles.  Now our wonderful Department of Homeland Security is investigating ABC.  They're embarrassed, so they're going after the messenger.  Face it, folks.  We're vulnerable.  Big time.

I was going to write a nice little essay today on the status of America's war on terror.  After I read this piece from David Horowitz I shelved my plans.  Horowitz pretty much says what needed to be said. 

Another great one from Ann Coulter.  She says that "On the basis of their recent pronouncements, the position of the Democratic Party seems to be that Saddam Hussein did not hit us on 9-11, but Halliburton did."

Remember General Wesley Clark?  He's the former NATO commander who thinks that American was founded on the principal of progressive (soak the rich) taxation.  Now anti-war on terror candidate Howard Dean wants Clark to join his campaign.

It just isn't nice to refer to a gay Episcopal Bishop as a "bitch."  But doing so may bring you Internet fame. CNN's Rudi Bakhtiar is now No. 1 in Lycos Internet searches.  Yes, I have the clip.  Yes, I'll probably play it on the air today.

Bill Clinton will be in California this weekend to (a) scope out female Gray Davis staffers, and (b) to campaign for Gray Davis in the recall election.  John Fund says that Bill Clinton is becoming the Democratic Party's political undertaker.  Gray Davis should be thankful that Clinton is only going to show up at one event, and that event is at a black church.

NEALZ LINKS FOR NUZE

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
World Net Daily
NewsMax
Wall Street Journal opinions
Washington Times
Washington Post
Real Clear Politics
Media Research Center
The Drudge Report
The Associated Press
SF Gate