It’s been seven years. As we approach the anniversary of 9/11, that’s the first thing that sticks in my head. I can’t believe it’s been seven years. Back when we ushered in the new millennium, I really thought that the most momentous milestone in time that I’d live through would be the change from the 20th century to the 21st. Turns out, I was wrong. We don’t really measure time today as in “before the millennium” and “after the millennium.” We live in a post-9/11 world, and long for the way things used to be, before that fateful day in September.
Do you know how to tell what the real momentous events are in your life? Easy – you remember where you were when something happened. For instance:
- I was in my first grade class at St. Mark’s Day School when they announced that President Kennedy had been shot.
- I was at a Radio Shack when I heard that President Reagan had been shot.
- At work, I drove like a maniac to my rented duplex to see what had happened to the Challenger space shuttle. The term “RTLS, RTLS!”* still rattles round my brain.
- I awoke to a loud sonic “Boom” to learn that the shuttle Columbia had blown up over Dallas. My wife went to school with Commander Rick Husband. Her ex went to school with Pilot William McCool.
- And I was getting my daughter ready for school when that first plane hit the World Trade Center and the world changed forever.
I’m a lot luckier than some people with loved ones on planes that day. My wife had gotten up around 4 AM to fly from D/FW to D.C. for a job interview at a company that offices right across the street from the White House. I don’t know what caused me to turn on the news that morning. But the first thing I heard was that a bomb had gone off in the World Trade Center. Then it was a small private plane. By that time, news crews had their cameras trained on the building. And then the second plane hit. The Pentagon was hit. And the world turned upside down. Most people were speechless. I remember as I was flipping back and forth between CNN and Fox, that the CNN anchors either had no clue, or were completely in denial. I was a thousand miles away, and I instantly knew three things, seeing the planes fly into the WTC and Pentagon:
- That was no small plane – it was a full-sized jet
- That couldn’t be an accident – it was planned
- We were under attack – and we didn’t even know who’d declared war on us.
In fairness to CNN (a fairness they never seem to reciprocate to conservatives) nobody anticipated the enormity of this act. And most of us were in shock. Criticize Bush if you like, but I was proud of him that day, and in the days after. He took charge, and acted the way you want your leaders to act. He was brave. He was decisive. And he was resolute.
Back on 9/11, I was worried about our country, but my more immediate concern was over the safety of my wife. It is still amazing to me that the FAA, the air traffic controllers (the unsung heroes of 9/11!) and the airlines were able to do the impossible – ground every commercial flight within an hour. The enormity of that undertaking still boggles my mind. My wife was over Virginia airspace, when the captain announced that there had been a bombing in NYC, and they’d been ordered back to Dallas. The plane made a sharp 180. Luggage fell from the overheads. People screamed. As the plane headed back to Dallas, my wife (who’d spent years in Washington, working on the Hill), wondered why a bombing in New York would force a plane bound for D.C. to divert back to Dallas. She didn’t have long to wait. The pilot came on over the P.A. again, and announced that all planes had been ordered to land at the nearest airport within 30 minutes. He banked 180 degrees again, and landed ASAP in Memphis.
Here are some things you might not know. When all the planes landed, passengers were told that they couldn’t use their cell phones, under penalty of confiscation. They were given just 30 minutes to leave the airport, or be stuck there, under lockdown, until such time as the Feds reopened them. They discovered that there was a run on rental cars and hotel rooms, making it virtually impossible to find either. And they learned that the Mississippi River bridges had been shut down by the police and National Guard. My wife had no way home.
On the home front, I witnessed price gouging firsthand. Gas at Sam’s Club doubled in price in less than an hour. But I also saw people exhibiting kindness, helping each other, although none of us knew just what was going on – or why.
In the hours that followed, my resourceful, clever wife was able to band together with some fellow passengers and secure a room for the night and a rental car the following day. By the time they’d reached the Mississippi, they experienced a stroke of luck, and found the bridges newly-reopened. We were able to withdraw enough cash to live on while the country took stock, and began a search for answers. And we all seemed to pull together as one, neither Republican nor Democrat, not conservative or liberal, but Americans, first and foremost.
I remember how we all thought with one mind and one heart immediately after. We stopped fighting and started working with one voice, to protect our country. I remember that Fall, just before the invasion of Afghanistan, when I took my wife and young daughter to the State Fair of Texas. We saw some young Marines, and walked up to them to thank them for the sacrifice they were making for our country. That sacrifice soon hit home for us, too. My stepson graduated from High School that next year, and immediately left for Marine boot camp. My wife became a Key Volunteer Coordinator for his reserve unit out of Lubbock. She spent many a sleepless night, as he served in Iraq, driving 7 ton trucks across the country, making himself the prime target for Improvised Explosive Devices and every Tom, Deek, and Ahkmed that had a grudge against us. And for us, life assumed what now passes for normal.
Seven years down the road, where are we, and what have we learned? I can’t speak for you or anyone else, but I can tell you what I’ve learned. I’ve learned that our service men and women are brave, dedicated, and worthy of our admiration, our thanks, and our gratitude. I’ve learned that, far too often, there are way too many in this country that are willing to forget the lessons of 9/11 and deny that we are in a cultural fight to the death. I’ve learned that there is no substitute for projecting force to our enemies. I’ve learned that tying the hands of our service men and women is the fastest way to get them killed. And I’ve learned that, regardless of what any politician says or would like to believe, the war on terror is ultimately going to come down to an question of “us” or “them,” and there will be no middle ground.
If I can fault the President for anything in this war, it is in not for the invasion or for fighting. It’s for not following his instincts, at least for a time, and trying to turn a war into a police action. (I attribute this to his desire to placate and please the liberals, with the plan to put a “kinder and gentler” face on our military.) Armies are trained to fight. Police are trained to protect and defend. Our soldiers and Marines should never be used as a police force. Period. Oh, and to those liberals of the “this is an illegal war” and “if we’d be more sensitive to the Muslims, they’d like us better” ilk, note this: When we project force and act decisively, we win. When we go the “sensitive/multicultural/diversity” route, we lose.
Understand this. Radical Islam is not just a cancer on the Muslim faith. It is a cancer on our world. A time is coming, very soon now, where every man, woman, and child on this Earth will have to make a choice, and that choice will be between surrendering to Radical Islam or choosing to eradicate it. There will be no more fence-sitters, no opportunity to play the odds, equivocate, or even try to broker a peace between the sides. This is a black and white issue. Eventually, the world will have to face this fact, or they will be forced to submit to the radicals and their concept of a worldwide Islamic caliphate.
I believe America will eventually triumph. Radical Islam will be eradicated from the face of the Earth. Those that fail to condemn it and attack it will ultimately be judged to have chosen a side by default. By failing to declare their opposition to the radicals, they will be counted as their supporters. And, sadly, they will suffer the same fate as the radicals.
On this anniversary of 9/11, I pray to God that he watches over our troops, and keeps them safe. I pray that he will smite the hand of Radical Islam and wipe that scourge off the face of the Earth. And I pray he will keep America safe. War is a terrible thing. But there are worse things than war. To surrender our way of life to live under tyranny and in fear, in subservience to radical Islam is much, much worse.
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* Return To Launch Site. NASA jargon for a command to abort a liftoff.
Rental Cars Nyc…
Excellent post…..