For some reason, this past September 11th (2006) was the first time I was stricken with actual grief over the indescribeable loss of value that America suffered on that black day in 2001. I think I’ve been in shock for the last five years, but on September 11 2006 I cried for the loss, mourned the dead, and remembered the day America took an arrow in the chest. Lady Liberty: wounded, not mortally, but bloodied for the first time since Pearl Harbor – December 7th, 1941.
I remember that day all too well. My initial reactions were shock, then anger, fury, rage at those cowards who had murdered innocent people in the thousands. My next reaction was horror at the loss of the two most beautiful buildings in New York City, buildings which symbolized all that is good about America: productivity, rationality, pride. Then came the worry – that they might try to do it again; a worry that in my mind was more certainty than supposition because I could see with my own eyes the deadly, patient determination of the jihadists.
But life on American soil has been peaceful, for a while. The US had invaded Afghanistan to remove the Taliban and Osama bin Laden – the cold-blooded planner of murder and destruction and those who supported him – and while we didn’t get bin Laden, the enemy were generally routed. The al-Qaeda network was damaged, if not broken. The US invaded Iraq to dethrone Saddam Hussein – a worthy venture because of the money flowing out of Iraq’s coffers and into the hands of Islamic terrorists. In my judgment Iraq was a few thousand miles short of the most important targets but it seemed we were doing something useful and that we just might stem the tide of Islamic jihad.
Five years later, I can clearly see that I was wrong to expect that kind of change. An influx of Syrian and Iranian money, weapons, and terrorists have kept the USA busy trying to stave off a civil war being inflamed to destroy the Iraqi government. The Islamofacists have kept us busy spending money and losing good soldiers, all the while exacerbating the growing crisis with deception, media manipulation, and fraud. And the “democratic” (read as mob rule) government instituted post-Saddam is based at least in part on shar’ia law. The people have voted; they have at least a version 1.0 of the kind of government they want, for they are in large part (the majority) followers of Islam. There are many in Iraq who genuinely want individual liberty, but they are not in the majority. The USA has succeeded in overthowing a secular dictatorship and I cannot be more supportive of that action, for Saddam Hussein was a brutal mass murderer desirous of world domination (if you recall, he started with Kuwait, and we stopped him cold). But because we have lacked the moral certainty to address the root causes of Islamic terrorism, in the place of a “democracy” we are likely to see an Islamic Caliphate. This development will only be a matter of time unless the people of the free (and somewhat free) nations take a moral stand supporting liberty and individual self-interest, and actively fight this encroaching nightmare with words and, when necessary, with deeds.
How do I know this? I started studying Islam. I grant you this is an odd avocation for an atheist, but the desire to fully comprehend root causes can lead one into strange places.
I began to assuage my grief for all that was lost on 9/11/2001 by focusing intently on understanding why it happened – and why the terrorist acts continue to happen, nearly every day, around the world. I started paying attention to the behavior of Muslims, whose leaders react to even the slightest hint of a possible provocation with a vile outporing of hatred, inciting their loyal followers to acts of violence and murder. I bumped into Jihad Watch, and after many laborious hours there found many clues to pursue. (I owe a great debt to Robert Spencer and Hugh Fitzgerald, among others, for their outspoken and courageous behavior in stating the truth without trepidation.) Not being one to simply listen to what someone else has to say, I began buying books (including the A.J. Arberry translation fo the Qur’an) and started my course of self-directed study. (I will provide a list of books and links I have used for my research in another post, for those who wish to follow in my footsteps along the path of higher, if disturbing, education.)
Now I know that those who are enemies of Islam are owed no true statements, no allegiences, and no loyalties beyond those expediencies of the moment which can be eventually used to further Islam. And I know that nothing short of Islam dominating the world and the implementation of shar’ia law in every corner of the Earth will satisfy these maniacs. (After which the Sunni and Shiite – and other – factions will likely turn on each other in a bloody global civil war to determine whose variant of shar’ia law will prevail.)
For me there now follows an angry determination to deny a “free pass” or “benefit of the doubt” to those cheering throngs of Islamic, anti-American, anti-reason, anti-value, virulent haters of life and liberty. The behavior of the Islamic faithful on that day – and since – has erased all doubt in my mind regarding the sincerity of their intentions and the consistency of their actions. They meant what they said when they told us in the years before 2001 that the US was the “Great Satan” and would be destroyed. They mean what they say today, when they chant “Death to America,” “Death to Israel,” and demand conversion to Islam at the point of a sword – or gun – or bomb.
I know this. And I know it can be stopped – not erased, but halted, contained. It will not be easy. I’ll have more to say in future posts, for this is blog entry is just the beginning, and I will take my readers with me on a long journey for the truth about Islam. In the meantime, I will offer a reminder of the loss we suffered on 9/11/2001 that must never be forgotten and must never happen again. Those who were killed have, with their deaths, given us a shrill warning, and their loss must not be in vain.
Here is the aftermath of the Black Day in Manhattan:
- 2,996 innocent people were murdered. Some, on United Flight 93, died heroically preventing that aircraft from crashing into the White House.
- The Pentagon was damaged
- 13.4 million square feet – 4% of Manhattan’s total office space – comprising the World Trade Center buildings was destroyed.
- Adding the surrounding buildings damaged in the attack gives a total of more than 30 million square feet of damage.
- $83 billion and 57,000 jobs were annihilated on 9/11/2001.
Another reason for this blog: American moonbats are drowining otherwise reasonable people in conspiracy theories in an attempt to prove that Islamic terrorists weren’t responsible for 9/11. These amazing tinfoil-hat conspiracy theorists are, knowingly or not, parroting the Islamic standard lines documented in many MEMRI-TV video files showing Islamic leaders stating one or more of the following idiotic concepts intended to publicly absolve Islam of all blame: it was a “Bush conspiracy” for oil; it was a “Zionist conspiracy” for power; it was a “US-Israel plot” to defame Islam, etc., etc. A note for those moonbats reading this blog: Occam’s razor still applies. (Translation: any explanation that requires as much work as has been expended in “proving” a conspiracy theory generally disproves itself by the amount of effort required to execute said “plot” and still have everyone involved somehow be mysteriously silent about it.) Amazingly, the conspiracy theorists continue to ignore the video released by al-Jazeera celebrating (and showing) bin Laden’s planning and execution of the attacks on America on 9/11. I believe the moonbat motto must be: never let facts stand in the way of attacking George Bush (of whom I am no supporter).
I leave you with these parting words:
Never forget.
Never forget.
Never absolve those who wish us to convert to Islam or die. Never. Forgiveness for the murder of 2,996 people would be a sin.
Above all: Reject Islam, a religion of domination, looting, and murder directed at those who do reject Islam.
Never submit.
– Cincinnatus
