It was 10 years ago this morning that Islamic fundamentalism—and four hijacked jetliners—took America to war.
There is noneed to rehearse fully the details: Twoaircraft hurtling throughacobalt, latesummer sky and knifing intoapair of iconic Manhattan skyscrapers. The Pentagon ablaze. That debrisscattered Pennsylvania meadow.
No, the most meaningful memories of that morning arepersonal, powerful—and indelible. Still, formost, the pain has been tempered by time, the shock has faded, the resolution given way todistraction and—toooften—to indifference. Not so for the families and friends of the nearly 3,000 victims of the barbarous assault—at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and aboard United Flight 93. They, of course,will never forget.
And thus the nation today properly pays tribute to the dead of 9/11—and particularly to those who ran to the danger, at the cost of their lives.
Fully 343 firefighters, 37 PortAuthoritycops, 23NYPD officers and three court officers died trying to save others —arguably the first combat casualties of the Long War. For9/11was not a “tragedy,” or a “disaster,” or a “catastrophe”— and it wasmost certainlymore than a series of “events.”
It was an act of war — an attack not onlyontheUnited States of America and the physical symbols of its greatness, butmore fundamentally on freedom itself.
It was an attack thatwas to be repeated again and again in the ensuing decade—in London, in Madrid, inMumbai, in Bali—and it could happen again tomorrow, anywhere thereare people who cherish the values that radical Islam abhors. Freedom to speak. Freedom to worship. Freedom, most basically, to think.
Howgoes that war?
This year sawOsama bin Laden brought low, deliveredhis just deserts byacrack teamof Navy SEALs.
His organization has been shattered, and those of its leaders not deador incustody are sequestered and on the defensive.
The lesson: Making waronAmerica is perilous business.
Yet the danger persists. Radical Islam means to bend theWest to its will—as it has attempted to do for centuries.
And, shamefully, it is not lacking allies in the West—witting and otherwise. According toanew PewResearch Center poll, 43% of Americans nowbelieve thatUSwrongdoing— and not medievalist nihilism—caused the attacks.
By that line of reasoning, those who died 10 years ago todaywerecomplicit in theirownmurders.
That’s nonsense, of course—but thank mindlessmulticulturalism for the misunderstanding.
YetasWilfredMcClay notes inNational Affairs, AbrahamLincoln acknowledged in his Gettysburg Address that itwas not enough simply to mourn the battle’s dead.Those deaths hadtobeplaced in the contextof“the great task remaining beforeus.” Today’s task, frankly, is the eradication of the Islamist threat—no easy feat.
As former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has said, the threat emanatesnot from aparticular group but froman ideology: “Its roots aredeep, its tentacles are long and its narrative about Islam stretches far further than anyone thinks.”
Amputating tentacles was a principal war aim of the Bush administration—especially regarding Afghanistan and Iraq.
Butwhile neither effort has borne a lot of fruit, it should be remembered thatwar is a bluntforcetrauma undertaking, and it is sometimes decades before success or failure becomes obvious (President Harry Truman’s decision to defend South Korea in 1950 being a case in point).
Was the Arab Spring a spinoff of Operation Iraqi Freedom? Isanew daydawning in the Muslim world?
Perhaps, but that is far from assured—and a precipitous American abandonment of its responsibilities will ensure defeat.
Yes, Americans are tired afteradecade of seemingly endless war.
ButAmerica didn’t seek thatwar. Itwas thrust upon the nation 10 years ago this morning by an enemy that has been sorely mauled since then, but not defeated. Which iswhy, on this anniversary,America cannot simply mourn the deadwithout also remembering why they died.
Therecan be no lasting peaceuntil the ideologies and impulses that propelled 9/11 have been tamed.
Permanently.