The terrible events of the above date created a day of infamy (words borrowed from President Roosevelt when he announced the Pearl Harbor attacks on December 7th, 1941). Radio and TV stations aired programs that recalled the harrowing day of September 11th, 2001 over the past few days regarding the Terrorist attacks in NYC (Trade Towers), Northern Virginia (Pentagon) and Shanksville, PA (9/11/2001.
The phrase that appeared in several places was, “We will never forget.” Another phrase, emphasizing the positive could be used, “We will always remember.”
Such destruction and death shocks our consciousness just as did Pearl Harbor (12/07/1941), D-Day (6/6/1944) and by comparison, deaths at Pearl Harbor amounted to about 2,500, the D-Day invasion about 2,500 while deaths numbered about 3,000 on 9/11/2001.
On the 18th anniversary of this despicable attack, The New York Times tweeted this: “18 years have passed since airplanes took aim and brought down the World Trade Center. Today families will once again gather and grieve at the site where more than 2,000 people died.”
The four aircraft were not self-aiming missiles but were being commanded by Islamic terrorists who had overwhelmed the pilot and crew and slit their throats with box-openers. Yes, the families were gathered to grieve but the entire free world was aghast at the unprovoked attack that killed more U.S. citizens than Pearl Harbor or D-Day. And the number of deaths was almost 3,000 well over 2,000 as reported by the NY Times.
Comments about the horrendous attack included one that asserted that our federal government had placed vast quantities of explosives in the halls of the Twin Towers to assure complete destruction and death. One young man who was age 10 in 2001 justified the attack because of the very bad things ‘the U.S. had done in the Middle East.’
Ilhan Omar, Congresswoman representing Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District in a speech on March 23rd, 2019 to a CAIR fundraising event in California said, “CAIR was founded after 9/11, because they recognized that ‘some people did something’ and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties.” The reality is that CAIR was founded in 1994. The FBI and several Islamic nations have identified the Council on American Islamic Relations as a front organization for Hamas and The Muslim Brotherhood.
As an update, Muslim terrorists have killed 35,620 people around the world since the 9/11 atrocities in New York, Northern Virginia and Shanksville, Pennsylvania. There have been 734 deaths worldwide in the month of August 2019 at the hands of Muslim Terrorists. Try to also remember that Iran is considered the greatest supporter of terrorist groups in the world.
While Al Qaeda was blamed for the actions on 9/11, there are more than 200 terrorist groups worldwide. A July 2019 report tells of a 14-year-old girl who walked out into the road of a Nigerian village, raised her arms and called to nearby soldiers. Her appeal was related to the suicide explosive garment that had been strapped to her by Boko Haram terrorists; she lamented that ‘she didn’t want to die.’ A soldier stepped forward, took scissors and started cutting into the attached belt. The soldier warned that they would both die if he failed to remove the explosive; thankfully, they survived.
In another instance in Nigeria, Boko Haram had strapped explosives to a 15-year-old girl who escaped and walked for two days until she arrived at a village where she fell asleep under a tree. She was noticed and the bomb was removed from her chest as her knees buckled and she exclaimed that it was about equal odds that she could have died or lived.
Nigerian officials estimate that Boko Haram has kidnapped at least 20,000 boys and girls in Nigeria and neighboring countries. The purpose of the 9/11 and other attacks is three-fold; to kill as many people as possible, to destroy symbols of wealth and freedom and to plant fear in the hearts and minds of all ‘infidels’ worldwide.
In this violent and dangerous world, we must protect our nation and its people from those who enslave and abuse children and send them to martyrdom and who associate killing others as a step toward absolution.
Life is precious to all who live in freedom.
Dick Baynton