Fire Hydrant of Freedom
Politics, Religion, Science, Culture and Humanities => Politics & Religion => Topic started by: Crafty_Dog on September 11, 2012, 09:52:45 PM
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A bit late in the day to start this thread, but at least this will be here for next year:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3eQmzw6n3k&feature=youtu.be
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Again, my apologies for posting this late in the day, but this has been up for 2-3 days on our front page.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/09/11/video-motorcycles-rumble-through-on-the-way-to-d-c-for-911-rally/
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second post
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/09/11/video-motorcycles-rumble-through-on-the-way-to-d-c-for-911-rally/
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http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/12/15/congressmen-move-to-declassify-key-part-of-911-report-that-they-say-could-indicate-hijackers-had-outside-help/#
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2013/12/the-911-cover-up-more-evidence-of-state-sponored-war-in-the-cause-of-islam.html
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Woof All:
http://dogbrothers.com/saved-by-the-militia/
As we approach the anniversaries of 911 and Benghazi, regardless of what we may think about how the state of the world got to be as it is, it sure looks like islamo-fascism could be a real threat to the American homeland.
ISIL is incredibly well funded and has at least many hundreds of passports that get them into the US without visa (I.e. US and Euro ). In short, unlike before, the hatred is but a plane ticket away and the people with those passports are both in a messianic rage and experienced in combat.
Mumbai-type attacks are well within their present skill sets and operational capabilities.
It is important to remember that the Russians specifically warned us about those two brothers who went on to bomb the Boston Marathon-- and still Big Brother could not get it right. (It may worth wondering what we got for the devil's bargain of surrendering the freedom of privacy in return for promises of security?
It is important to remember that the only thing that did work on the first 911 was We The People on Flight 93.
It is important to remember that this is exactly what our divinely inspired Founding Fathers had in mind-- the ultimate defense of the nation rested in the hands of a well-armed people.
Precisely because of our Declaration of Independence and Constitution we are a rather well armed people.
As we seek to walk as warriors for all our days, we do not complain of our troubles. God only gives us troubles we can handle and therefore he must think we are some real badasses.
Are you ready to be on a Flight 93 today? Are you ready for cyberwar, hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, epidemics, etc?
Tomorrow is promised to no one. Are you ready?
Mangling the words of the poet, take this hour to perform your art and perfect your Life.
The Adventure continues!
Marc/Crafty Dog
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http://freebeacon.com/national-security/fbi-national-domestic-threat-assessment-omits-islamist-terrorism/
Fundamental transformation.
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Our 911 front page is up.
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Our 911 front page is up.
I (also) have an eerie feeling about the coming anniversary of 9/11. It was not helpful or wise that our President told the extremists they are washed up, defeated, on the run, and Junior Varsity, whatever that means in Arabic. The tough talk and reach out in his speech tonight out of both sides of his mouth won't help either. If they are capable of hitting us, they will do it. Maybe something big. Maybe just a few, homegrown copycats. Hopefully just small, failed attempts that we never hear about.
I wonder if we will leave any US diplomats guarded with only unarmed guards in third world countries ruled by competing militias. And then tell available help to stand down.
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http://www.fdnylodd.com/9-11-Never-Forget/Memorials/Blood-Of-Heroes.html
Never forget.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlRTyt6dALM
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An old Pak International Airlines ad...might have been the spark for KSM.
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BuM77gFCUAEEYY_.jpg:large)
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For you translation pleasure, bearing in mind one language won't directly form to another;
New York via Pakistan International. One of several companies "priest-class" direct to New York. Departs South Orly (Paris Airport), offering the best correspondence with the provincial villages ("in the area", I.e., greater NY area). New proof of the efficiency of PIA.
PIA is an international company of spectacular development: 3 million passengers a year, take offs every 6 minutes.
A successful caring construct with passenger satisfaction.
For a true crossing.
New York where (with, actually) 60 other big metropolises in the world, leave via PIA.
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http://dcgazette.com/watch-new-clear-video-found-of-9-11-attack/
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Where I Was On September 11
Fourteen Years
By: Dan McLaughlin (Diary) | September 11th, 2015
Until September 11, 2001, I worked in the World Trade Center, halfway up Tower One. I wasn’t doing political blogging at the time, but was writing “the Baseball Crank” as a weekly baseball column for the online edition of the Providence (R.I.) Journal. Here’s my account of that day, written for ProJo two days later while it was all still fresh. We run this every year on the anniversary.
On Tuesday, they tried to kill me.
I am ordinarily at my desk between 7:30 and 8:30 in the morning, in my office on the 54th floor of one of the World Trade Center’s towers. Tuesday, I was running late – I stopped to vote in the primary election for mayor, an election that has now been postponed indefinitely. Thank God for petty partisan politics.
Around 20 minutes to 9, as I have done every day for the past five years, I got on the number 2/3 train heading to Park Place, an underground stop roughly a block and a half, connected underground, to the Trade Center. The train made its usual stop at Chambers Street, five blocks north of my office, where you can switch to the local 1/9 that runs directly into the Trade Center mall. The subway announcer – in a rare, audible announcement – was telling people to stay on the 2/3 because the tunnel was blocked by a train ahead of us. Then he mentioned that there had been “an explosion at the World Trade Center.”
Now, I grew up in the suburbs, so maybe I’m not as street smart as I should be, but after living in the city a few years, you develop a sense of the signs of trouble (like the time there were shots fired in the next subway car from mine). I didn’t know what the explosion was, maybe a gas leak or something, but I knew that I was better off getting above ground to see what was going on rather than enter the complex underground. So I got off the train to walk to work.
When I got above ground, there was a crowd gathering to see the horror above: a big hole somewhere in the top 15-20 stories of the north tower (having no sense of direction, I thought that was Number 2 at the time, not Number 1 where my office was), with flames and smoke shooting out. I quickly realized it would not be safe to go into the office, despite a number of things I had waiting for me to do, so as I heard the chatter around about there having been a plane crash into the building (onlookers were saying “a small plane” at that point) and a possible terrorist attack, I turned away to start looking for a place to get coffee and read the newspaper until I could find out what had happened. That was when it happened.
The sound was a large BANG!, the unmistakable sound of an explosion but with almost the tone of cars colliding, except much louder. My initial thought was that something had exploded out of the cavity atop the tower closer to us and gone . . . where? It was followed by a scene straight out of every bad TV movie and Japanese monster flick: simultaneously, everyone around me was screaming and running away. I didn’t have time to look and see what I was running from; I just took off, hoping to get away from whatever it was, in case it was falling towards us. Nothing else can compare to the adrenaline rush of feeling the imminent presence of deadly danger. And I kept moving north.
Once people said that a second plane had hit the other tower, and I saw it was around halfway up – right where my office was, I thought, still confused about which tower was which – it also appeared that the towers had survived the assault. I used to joke about this, telling people we worked in the only office building in America that had been proven to be bomb-resistant. I stopped now and then, first at a pay phone where I called my family, but couldn’t hear the other end. I stopped in a few bars, calling to say I was OK, but I still didn’t feel safe, and I kept moving north. In one bar I saw the south tower collapse, and had a sick feeling in my stomach, which increased exponentially when I saw Tower Number One, with my office in it and (so far as I knew) many of the people I work with as well, cave in. Official business hours start at 9:30, but I started reeling off in my head all the lawyers who get in early in the morning, and have for years. I thought of the guy who cleans the coffee machines, someone I barely speak to but see every day, who has to be in at that hour. I was still nervous, and decided not to think about anything but getting out alive. A friend has an apartment on 109th street, so I called him and kept walking, arriving on his doorstep around 1 p.m., and finally sat down, with my briefcase, the last remnant of my office. I had carried a bunch of newspapers and my brown-bag lunch more than 120 blocks. The TV was on, but only CBS was broadcasting – everyone else’s signal had gone out of the Trade Center’s antenna.
Finally, the news got better. I jumped when there were planes overhead, but they were F-15s, ours. American combat aircraft flying with deadly seriousness over Manhattan. My wife was home, and she had heard from people at the office who got out alive. It turns out that my law firm was extraordinarily lucky to get so many people out – nearly everyone is now accounted for, although you hold your breath and pray until it’s absolutely everyone. The architect who designed the towers – well, we used to complain a lot that the windows were too narrow, but the strength of those buildings, how they stayed standing for an hour and an hour and a half, respectively, after taking a direct hit by a plane full of gasoline – there are probably 10 to 15,000 people walking around New York today because they stayed up so long.
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By Wednesday night, the adrenaline was finally wearing off, and I was just angry. They had tried to kill me, had nearly killed many of the people I work with, and destroyed the chair I sit in everyday, the desk I work at and the computer I do my work on. And that’s before you even begin to count the other lives lost. Words fail to capture the mourning, and in this area it’s everywhere. I finally broke down Thursday morning, reading newspaper accounts of all the firemen who were missing or dead, so many who had survived so many dangers before, and ran headlong into something far more serious, far more intentional. My dad was a cop, my uncle a fireman. It was too close.
The mind starts to grasp onto the little things, photos of the kids and from my wedding; the radio in my office that I listened to so many Mets games on, working late; a copy of my picture with Ted Williams (more on that some other day); the little Shea Stadium tin on my desk that played “take me out to the ballgame” when you opened it to get a binder clip, the new calculator I bought over the weekend. All vaporized or strewn halfway across the harbor. The things can mostly be replaced, they’re just things, but it’s staggering to see the whole context of your daily routine disappear because somebody – not “faceless cowards,” really, but somebody in particular with a particular agenda and particular friends around the world – wants you dead.
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There’s a scene that comes to mind, and I’m placing it in the Lord of the Rings because that’s where I remember it, but feel free to let me know if I’ve mangled it or made it up. Frodo the hobbit has lived all his life in the Shire, where the world of hobbits (short, human-like creatures) revolves around hospitality and particular etiquette and family snobbery and all the silliest little things, silly at least in comparison to the great and dangerous adventure he finds himself embarked on. Aragorn, one of the Men, has been patrolling the area around the Shire for years, warding off invading creatures of all varieties of evil. Frodo asks Aragorn, eventually, whether he isn’t frustrated with and contemptuous of hobbits and the small, simple concerns that dominate their existence, when such dangers are all at hand. Aragorn responds that, to the contrary, it is the simpleness and even the pettiness of the hobbits that makes the task worthwhile, because it’s proof that he has done his job – kept them so safe and insulated from the horrors all around them that they see no irony, no embarrassment in concerning themselves with such trivial things in such a hazardous world. It has often struck me that you could ask no better description of the role of law enforcement and the military, keeping us so safe that we may while our days on the ups and downs of made-up games.
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And that’s why baseball still matters. There must be time for mourning, of course, so much mourning, and time as well to feel secure that 55,000 people can gather safely in one place. The merciful thing is that because, save for the Super Bowl and the Olympics, U.S. sports are so little followed in the places these evildoers breed – murderous men, by contrast, have little interest in pennant races – that they have not acquired the symbolic power of our financial and military centers. But that may not be forever.
But once we feel secure to try, we owe it most of all to those who protect us as well as those who died to resume the most trivial of our pursuits. Our freedom is best expressed not when we stand in defiance or strike back with collective will, but when we are able again to view Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens as the yardsticks by which we measure nastiness, to bicker over games. That’s why the Baseball Crank will be back. This column may be on hiatus for an undetermined time while the demands of work intrude – we intend to be back in business next week, and this will not be without considerable effort – but in time, I will offer again my opinion of why it would be positively criminal to give Ichiro the MVP, and why it is scandalous that Bill Mazeroski is in the Hall of Fame. And then I’ll be free again.
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9/11: Never Forget Morphs into Never Mind
By PAMELA GELLER on September 11, 2015
It is with great sorrow that I reflect back on the terrible day 14 years ago and the years that followed. For one brief moment, the nation understood that we were under attack. We were a nation at war, but before we could get our collective head around the unprecedented attack on American soil, the enemy foreclosed upon our ability to do so.
Since that fateful day, our freedoms, our very way of life has been under attack. Freedom of speech, our First Amendment, is under severe assault, as devout Muslims and their leftist lapdogs smear all those who dare to speak honestly about this threat, and work to force non-Muslims to accept Sharia blasphemy laws restricting all criticism of Islam. The enemedia has gone along readily, demonizing and marginalizing all those who note the ideology motivating the war against America.
The 9/11 Muslim terrorists extolled Allah no less than 90 times in their last letters. Bush declared Islam the religion of peace when it was his duty to explain what we were really up against. He declared, “Islam is a religion of peace” when he should have spoken honestly about what motivated the jihad. The war was clumsily named “the war on terror” and thus became the war of avoidance of the truth. Obama has been even worse, directly attacking the freedom of speech and declaring, “The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.” And after the Garland, Texas jihad attack, most media spokesmen agreed that we should voluntarily restrict our speech to avoid offending Muslims.
I live with a fatwa on my head. The death threats come daily.
Public schools are teaching our children the shahada.
We as a people have (with some notable exceptions) surrendered. Many, many people have, without even realizing it, internalized the idea that it is “racist” and “bigoted” to resist jihad terror. People are used to granting Muslims special accommodations in the workplace. On campuses nationwide, Muslims are presented as victims of the American “Islamophobic” war machine. Movies studiously avoid depicting jihadis as villains.
And so, 14 years after 9/11, our freedom and our future are more under threat than ever.
14 years after 9/11 the jihad is raging.
It didn’t have to be this way.
- See more at: http://pamelageller.com/2015/09/911-never-forget-morphs-into-never-mind.html/#sthash.5pNNm4Xo.dpuf
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THE UNLEARNED LESSONS OF 9/11
If experience is the teacher of fools, class is still in session.
September 11, 2015 Bruce Thornton
The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 should have been a rude awakening from the dogmatic slumbers of the previous decade. Instead, after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the West went on a vacation from history. The seeming triumph of liberal democracy and free-market capitalism convinced many that all we had left to do was to oversee the inevitable triumph of the Western paradigm throughout the world. Unfortunately, the “world,” especially the Islamic ummah, had other plans, ones that our own bad ideas and cultural dogmas have advanced.
Most broadly, the centuries-long belief that all peoples everywhere are embryonic Westerners should have been shattered by the slaughter in Manhattan and at the Pentagon. The attacks were a horrifically graphic reminder that our core ideals––human rights, sex equality, tolerance of difference, peaceful coexistence, personal and political freedom, material prosperity, the separation of church and state, free speech, and consensual government founded on law––were historical anomalies rather than the destiny of all humanity.
The 19 murderers were acting on a radically different set of ideals and principles––the doctrines of Islam that had destroyed the mighty Byzantine and Persian Empires, and that had invaded, plundered, and occupied southern Europe for 1000 years. We should have learned that nearly a quarter of the world’s people still take seriously what we have reduced to a life-style choice––faith in a transcendent power for whose commands the believer will kill and die, and whose spiritual imperatives trump freedom, human rights, and all the other goods we desire.
At the same time we indulged this universalism, we incoherently endorsed multiculturalism, a doctrine of cultural relativism––the idea that all cultures and their differences are equally good and admirable, that no basis exists for judging a culture or saying one is better than another, and that to say one is better is insensitive ethnocentrism or even racism. September 11 should have exposed this superstition as a dangerous lie, and reminded us that all cultures and social practices are not equal. Islamic sharia law, which codifies beliefs founded on fossilized tradition, intolerance, sex apartheid, and justified violence against infidels, are not just “different,” but inferior, for they limit human potential and flourishing by restricting individual freedom.
The next lesson of September 11 should have been the dangerous consequences of the anti-Americanism rife not just in the Middle East and Third World, but among many Europeans and Americans themselves. In the months after the attack numerous American and European intellectuals opined that America had in one way or another “deserved” the attacks. As Obama’s pastor Jeremiah Wright put it, the attacks were “chickens coming home to roost,” and America was paying for its numerous imperialist and racist crimes. This fashionable superstition, whose ultimate origins lie in communist propaganda, had hardened into stale clichés and an unthinking reflex triggered by international envy and resentment of America’s success, and by self-loathing and guilt on the part of Americans who enjoy biting the hand that fattens them.
In fact, there has never been a great power with the cultural, economic, and military resources of America that has been as restrained in using that power. Muslims in particular have benefited from America’s dominance, which saved hundreds of thousands of Muslims in the Balkans and Iraq, and even after 9/11, liberated millions more from the psychopathic Saddam Hussein and the vicious Taliban. Contrary to anti-American propaganda, the U.S. wasn’t targeted by al Qaeda for its alleged “crimes” against Islam, a specious pretext bin Laden cooked up to appeal to self-hating Westerners and rally disaffected Muslims, but for being the world hegemon that wields the power and influence the faithful believe Allah has destined for his believers. We should have learned on 9/11 that as a great power, we will be hated, envied, and resented merely for our existence, and that there is no number of good deeds we can perform to make like us those whose culture and traditions teach that they must hate us.
We also should have learned that our abysmal ignorance of history lies behind the demonization of the United States and our blindness to the reality of Islam. Too many of us endorse the lie that the U.S. has been a racist colonial and imperial power, oppressing and exploiting people across the globe, even as we gush over myths about Islamic “tolerance” and cultural achievements, and ignore the 1000-year record of Imperial Islam’s invasion, conquest, colonization, slaving, slaughter, raiding, and plundering of Christian lands. No better example of this ignorance has been the President, who has decried the Crusades––an attempt to liberate lands that had been Christian for over six centuries from their Muslim conquerors and overlords––and the Spanish Inquisition, whose toll of dead in its whole existence is about the same as the 5000 Jews slaughtered over a few days in Muslim Granada in 1066. Without history to provide the context for evaluating human behavior, we are vulnerable to the propaganda and duplicitous pretexts of the jihadists.
Finally, we should have connected the ignorance of history to the delusional utopianism that infects the West. The carnage on 9/11 should have restored the tragic vision of human existence, the recognition that humans flawed by destructive passions in a brutal indifferent world of chance, change, and death will never create heaven on earth. We should have relearned what our fathers and grandfather knew in World War II: that good men sometimes have to do things they’d rather not in order to keep bad men from prevailing; that the question is not whether people live or die, but whether some people die today so more people don’t die later; that hard, brutal choices have to be made in order to protect our civilization and its cherished goods like freedom and human rights. The simple fact is, if we had fought World War II the way we are fighting the war against jihadists and the states that nourish them, we would have lost.
The last decade and a half, especially the presidency of Barack Obama, has confirmed that many Americans, most on the left, did not learn those lessons. They still think the Middle East can be fixed by more democracy or economic development, since those peoples just want what we want, freedom, peace, and prosperity. Perhaps some do, but millions want more to live in obedience to Allah and restore the dominance Muslims enjoyed for 1000 years.
These Americans still practice a morally idiotic multiculturalism that idealizes the enemy, rationalizes or ignores Islam’s illiberal beliefs and sanctified violence, and proscribes as “hate speech” anybody who speaks the truth about Islam based on its 14 centuries of doctrine and practice. Even the terms “Islamic” and “jihadist” have been erased from our government’s discourse, and jihadist attacks described as “workplace violence” or their perpetrators called vague “extremists.”
These willfully ignorant Americans still indulge a self-loathing that reflexively blames America for all the world’s ills, and as such emboldens our enemies to persevere in the face of our civilizational failure of nerve. They still know nothing of history, refusing to put America’s actions in the context of what other great powers have done, and remaining oblivious to the bloodstained history of Islamic aggression. There is no better example of this cultural neurosis than Obama’s 2009 Cairo speech, in which he apologized for “colonialism” and flattered the mythic achievements of Muslim Cordoba for the benefit of the jihadist Muslim Brothers sitting in the front row.
Finally, the unschooled pursue utopian ideals that claim civilizational order and peace can be maintained without brutal violence, that wars can be fought without all the permanent horrible consequences of mass violence, that conflict with inveterate enemies can be resolved with talk or material rewards, and that economic development and esteem-boosting flattery of an illiberal religion and culture can transform the faith-based identity of the jihadist into something more like us––all delusions evident in Obama’s disastrous deal with Iran.
Three thousand dead and a multi-billion dollar hit to our economy on 9/11 were not enough to school those still clinging to their delusions. But as the Romans said, experience is the teacher of fools. The implosion of the Middle East and the probability of a nuclear-armed Iran suggest that class is still in session, and more hard lessons are on the way.
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At some point we will look back at the good old days when terrorist mass casualty attacks were non-nuclear.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzF1KySHmUA
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Very persuasive!
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Words fail
https://pjmedia.com/trending/2016/09/10/demented-miracle-mattress-911-ad-shows-how-to-destroy-your-business-with-one-ad/?singlepage=true
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second post
http://dogbrothers.com/phpBB2/index.php?topic=2231.0
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third post
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrM0dAFsZ8k#t=25
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https://www.justsecurity.org/32837/president-obama-veto-jasta/
"Reasonable minds can disagree about whether providing the 9/11 victims and their families with a meaningful civil remedy against Saudi Arabia, if the allegations are true, is worth that cost. But ... the version of JASTA that passed the Senate (and, it now seems, the House) is the worst of both worlds...".
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https://www.lawfareblog.com/challenge-generation-experienced-911
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https://www.lawfareblog.com/challenge-generation-experienced-911
Can't win a war when you can't even truthfully discuss who you are at war with.
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Remembering the Fear 16 Years Later
Sep 11, 2017
By George Friedman
Today is Sept. 11, 16 years since the attack by al-Qaida. It was an attack that changed America, plunging it into a war that raged throughout the Middle East, creating a fear of Muslims and turning air travel from boredom to burden. These are, of course, only a few of the changes – changes that in many ways have been so embedded into American society that it is hard to imagine life any differently.
There are many useful similarities between the attack on Pearl Harbor and 9/11. Both took the country by surprise. Both were followed by wars that changed the country. Fear was pervasive. In Pearl Harbor, 2,403 Americans were killed; 2,977 died on 9/11. Pearl Harbor triggered terror that the Japanese were going to invade the West Coast, a fear that led to the internment of Japanese Americans. 9/11 raised the fear that other terrorist cells were lying dormant in the United States, ready to strike again and harder.
Years later, all the wise men pontificated on how those fears were exaggerated. Of course, they had the advantage of many years; they knew what they could not have known weeks after Pearl Harbor or 9/11. Such people irritate me, not because they appear at the moment to be right, but because of an utter lack of empathy for those who lived through the attacks. By empathy, I don’t mean a condescending nod. I mean that they either do not remember, or do not want to remember, the thrill of fear that went through all of us on 9/11, or the dread of what might be coming.
Small American flags are placed in the names on the 9/11 Memorial in the Manhattan borough of New York City. ALEX WROBLEWSKI/Getty Images
I knew such people then and I know them now. Immediately after 9/11, when the planes flew again, I went to a meeting in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. I was terrified of flying and frightened of my fellow passengers. The daily routine of life was shrouded in terror. The passengers on the four hijacked planes took their seats without any dread. The nearly 3,000 who went to work that morning and died had expected with good reason to go home. Getting on that plane, I was filled with a dread that I felt then and that I feel now was altogether reasonable. How else should someone feel?
At the meeting, the predominant mood was a sick panic. None of us claimed to have expected this. None of us were certain that the enemy’s campaign was over. In fact, the dominant view was that 9/11 was not a one-off. If al-Qaida had been able to carry out this attack, what else might it be capable of? What other attack might it be preparing at that very moment? We started to imagine scenarios, based on no knowledge. Our imaginations gave us enough to be afraid of. The greatest fear was that the terrorists had obtained nuclear weapons and would begin detonating them in American cities.
I remember one man who, at that meeting, was as frightened as I was and who had even more reckless thoughts than I did. I have met him since then, and as the years passed and the war against al-Qaida went badly, he began lecturing on how the Bush administration overreacted and gave into the public fear. It wasn’t only that he was delegitimizing the fear that gripped all reasonable people at the time, but that, separated by time, he pretended that he never gave into those same fears himself.
His is not an uncommon behavior. After World War II, most Americans were appalled by the measures taken in the war. Some measures were understandable and necessary, and some were mistakes. Knowing which is which in the moment, when you fear for your safety and that of your family, is hard.
The difference in Pearl Harbor and the war it started (for the Americans) compared with 9/11 and its subsequent war is that World War II ended, with a crisp and clean ceremony, creating a space for reflection and recrimination. Not so with 9/11. The war continues and shows no signs of ending. That’s because the fears that 9/11 brought up haven’t left us, even if some of us pretend otherwise. If we abandon the fight, what blows will be struck afterward? The one thing 9/11 has driven home is that no one has the right to be complacent.
But in a world without complacency, there can be no stones left unturned. In World War II, there was censorship, internment and extensive spying on the public – and it ended with victory. Without victory, there is no end – no end to the fear of Muslims, intercepted communications or spying. The fear lingers and the intrusions go on.
Being afraid of terrorists is not irrational, and focusing on those most likely to be terrorists is understandable. But it’s also something we must consider carefully. If the war doesn’t end, then when do the special efforts stop? When do we go back to normal? Right now, the answer is that this will happen when the enemy gives in. That’s another way of saying not for a very long time. That can’t be so. My question, then, is whether any of these measures helped win World War II, or prevented more terrorist attacks that couldn’t have been prevented under normal circumstances.
Those who are responsible for these measures claim that they are necessary. The truth is we won’t know until the war is over. In the meantime, there are difficult choices to be made, and we do the best we can. Permanent war brings permanent fear, and we will live with that fear until the war is ended.
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(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DJcM_SZU8AAN8ab.jpg)
I bet you can, if you try.
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http://tribunist.com/military/this-f-16-pilot-was-ready-to-give-her-life-on-911-now-shes-telling-her-incredible-story/amp/
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https://lidblog.com/9-11-01-have-you-forgotten/
I will not.
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9/11, 19 Years Later
By: George Friedman
It has been 19 years since 9/11. For me, it was pivotal moment of terror. For many others, once the initial paralyzing fear was gone, it was just a massive overreaction. And since then, a generation has emerged that has no memory of 9/11 and for whom it has little meaning. 9/11 was similar to Pearl Harbor. Both reminded Americans of their vulnerability, and both conjured images of national catastrophe. Both taught the lesson that danger and devastation might come at any moment without warning. The lesson of Pearl Harbor defined the Cold War. Pearl Harbor was a strike and defeat that came out of nowhere. So, too, a Soviet nuclear strike might come from nowhere. And thus, we swore never to stop watching, never to let our guard down, to always remember Pearl Harbor.
When the Cold War was over, the prevailing view was, naturally, that we had won. The world was no longer filled with danger. The Single Integrated Operational Plan for nuclear war was replaced with the Single Integrated Global Market. U.S. power was unmatched and great-power war was a thing of the past. So it was time for the invited to go to Davos and make plans to reengineer the world. Such a fantasy always emerges from the pain and weariness of wars to end all wars.
Desert Storm did not damage the fantasy – it was seen as a stunning display of U.S. might that should warn off future enemies and avert future wars in the Middle East. Instead it triggered the next one, a trigger to which the U.S. was oblivious. The U.S. went to war to protect Saudi Arabia, but did not anticipate the rise of al-Qaida in response.
What’s worse, the U.S. in the 1980s had helped create its future attacker. The Soviets had invaded Afghanistan in 1979, and the U.S. saw this as a marvelous opportunity to pay back the Russians for Vietnam. The Saudi government feared the Soviets, and so it funded the revenge and recruited fighters. The Pakistanis also feared the Soviets and thus provided the terrain to train an anti-Soviet force. The United States oversaw all this and trained the fighters. The fighters went to Afghanistan to regain the land seized by the Soviet infidel, and used the money and training for the next round.
There was a “Rambo” movie in 1988 in which Sylvester Stallone joins the mujahideen, bringing man-portable anti-air missiles to the freedom fighters who were deeply grateful for the gift. They were happy for the training and weapons to wage war against the enemies of Islam. But in the real world, they were not grateful. We had used them to bog down the Soviets. And they had used us to learn the overt and covert arts that, they hoped, would defeat the Soviets – and then defeat us.
Their intention was to recreate the caliphate. For that they needed an enemy, and after the Soviet withdrawal and collapse, the U.S. was the one. If they struck the U.S. and the U.S. did not strike back hard, the Arab world would see that the U.S. was weak. If the U.S. struck back hard, everyone would see that the U.S. was the enemy of Islam. From a political point of view, attacking the U.S. was a win-win. The tactical solution was to send operatives to the U.S. to learn to fly planes, hijack some and hit the global symbols of the U.S.: the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the Capitol.
I was awoken by a member of my staff to the news that a plane had hit the World Trade Center. I figured it was an incident; during World War II, a U.S. bomber slammed into the Empire State Building amid a thick fog. I knew there were intense anti-U.S. movements in the Islamic world – less than a year earlier, al-Qaida had killed 17 U.S. sailors in an attack on the USS Cole – but as with Pearl Harbor, we knew something was coming but had no idea what it would be.
It was a day of terror. There are those who would later say the U.S. overreacted. I would love to have seen them on 9/11. The country was first stunned and then terrified. The terror came from not knowing what other covert forces were deployed in the United States, and when and where they would strike. The one thing I knew was that we had been hit hard, and whoever planned this operation was smart, his operatives extraordinarily brave. In a war you are prepared to risk death. On 9/11, we met men who were freely going to their death. It reminded me that day of the kamikazes at Okinawa. The soldier who chooses death as a tactic is the most dangerous enemy imaginable.
For me, the most stunning thing was the cool coordination of the attack, after operating for months in the U.S. without detection. We didn’t know they were here, nor did we know what other plans had been made in Afghanistan. Even as events unfolded on the morning of 9/11, we couldn’t scramble planes in time to interdict the hijacked flights. Al-Qaida hit us hard, they achieved their goal in the Islamic world, and we had no response, obviously poor intelligence and no idea what was next. Anyone not terrified that day was not in touch with reality.
I remember that evening my wife and I walked a deserted road. The planes that ought to have been flying overhead to land at the airport weren’t there. We had a personal ache. The U.S. was at war, and two of our children would fight in that war. Our daughter, then a captain in the Army, was trained in military intelligence. She would serve two tours in Iraq. Our son, a lieutenant, was in Air Force Space Command. Our daughter would be in danger, that was certain. Our son could be as well, and given the events of that day, we didn’t know if Colorado Springs, where he was located, was the next target.
It is one thing for your country to be at war and to go to war yourself. It is a terrible thing to send your children to do what ought to be your job. I didn’t have to predict where our daughter would be deployed, nor was I confused at what my son’s mission might be. I had no mission, except to be stunned, terrified and of no use, except to call the play-by-play on something I really didn’t grasp.
Lenin said that the purpose of terror is to terrify. Al-Qaida’s mission was accomplished. Aircraft were grounded for a few days, and I had to make a trip to Oak Ridge the first day planes were flying again. I flew commercial, which demonstrated the unimportance of the trip and of me. On boarding the plane, I looked at the other passengers as they looked at me. I decided that if any headed to the cockpit, I would strike him in the back of the head with my computer. What I would do with the next guy I had no plan for. But I am sure all the passengers had similar ineffective plans.
The most frightening thing for me was the meeting. There was no Power Point presentation. Americans do not speak without Power Points, but there was no such preparations this time because everyone at the table was as lost as I was. I understood what Adm. Husband Kimmel, commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, had to have felt on Dec. 8, 1941. We were afraid and defeated.
There are those who say we allowed fear to take control of us. You bet. Fear is God’s way of telling you you’re in trouble and need to think hard. As for those who claim to have remained cool and collected, I really have one wish before I die (actually one of many), which is to be able to go back and see Mr. Calm and Cool around noon on 9/11 and then a week later. We were all terrified because that was the appropriate response. Whatever errors were made in the following years of war, there was no second 9/11 in America – and not for lack of trying on al-Qaida’s part. But the U.S. shut them down. That is something worth noting.
-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=9&v=ksYBQZ_jqFY&feature=emb_logo
-
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-declaration-on-notebook-from-home-of-associate-of-911-hijackers-to-be-filed-in-case-against-saudi-arabia/
-
The global jihad is tanned, rested and ready. They now have the A-stan base back, a massive amount of modern weapons, cash and most importantly, a new narrative of how America was defeated and ran away in chaos.
Oh, and hundreds, if not thousands of jihadists we have flown here. (What was the BigDog ratio of active jihadists per muslims imported?)
-
The global jihad is tanned, rested and ready. They now have the A-stan base back, a massive amount of modern weapons, cash and most importantly, a new narrative of how America was defeated and ran away in chaos.
Oh, and hundreds, if not thousands of jihadists we have flown here. (What was the BigDog ratio of active jihadists per muslims imported?)
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/taliban-holds-huge-victory-parade-showing-us-military-hardware
-
The global jihad is tanned, rested and ready. They now have the A-stan base back, a massive amount of modern weapons, cash and most importantly, a new narrative of how America was defeated and ran away in chaos.
Oh, and hundreds, if not thousands of jihadists we have flown here. (What was the BigDog ratio of active jihadists per muslims imported?)
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/taliban-holds-huge-victory-parade-showing-us-military-hardware
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/09/islamism_triumphant.html
-
The global jihad is tanned, rested and ready. They now have the A-stan base back, a massive amount of modern weapons, cash and most importantly, a new narrative of how America was defeated and ran away in chaos.
Oh, and hundreds, if not thousands of jihadists we have flown here. (What was the BigDog ratio of active jihadists per muslims imported?)
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/taliban-holds-huge-victory-parade-showing-us-military-hardware
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/09/islamism_triumphant.html
http://ace.mu.nu/archives/395443.php
-
The global jihad is tanned, rested and ready. They now have the A-stan base back, a massive amount of modern weapons, cash and most importantly, a new narrative of how America was defeated and ran away in chaos.
Oh, and hundreds, if not thousands of jihadists we have flown here. (What was the BigDog ratio of active jihadists per muslims imported?)
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/taliban-holds-huge-victory-parade-showing-us-military-hardware
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/09/islamism_triumphant.html
http://ace.mu.nu/archives/395443.php
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jizya
-
The global jihad is tanned, rested and ready. They now have the A-stan base back, a massive amount of modern weapons, cash and most importantly, a new narrative of how America was defeated and ran away in chaos.
Oh, and hundreds, if not thousands of jihadists we have flown here. (What was the BigDog ratio of active jihadists per muslims imported?)
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/taliban-holds-huge-victory-parade-showing-us-military-hardware
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/09/islamism_triumphant.html
http://ace.mu.nu/archives/395443.php
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jizya
https://americanmind.org/salvo/importing-enemies/
Teach your children that when being gang-raped by Afghan youths, to just close their eyes and think of vibrant diversity!
-
The global jihad is tanned, rested and ready. They now have the A-stan base back, a massive amount of modern weapons, cash and most importantly, a new narrative of how America was defeated and ran away in chaos.
Oh, and hundreds, if not thousands of jihadists we have flown here. (What was the BigDog ratio of active jihadists per muslims imported?)
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/taliban-holds-huge-victory-parade-showing-us-military-hardware
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/09/islamism_triumphant.html
http://ace.mu.nu/archives/395443.php
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jizya
https://americanmind.org/salvo/importing-enemies/
Teach your children that when being gang-raped by Afghan youths, to just close their eyes and think of vibrant diversity!
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/wisconsin-towns-await-influx-of-afghans-and-wonder-what-it-will-mean/ar-AANQyqg
-
The global jihad is tanned, rested and ready. They now have the A-stan base back, a massive amount of modern weapons, cash and most importantly, a new narrative of how America was defeated and ran away in chaos.
Oh, and hundreds, if not thousands of jihadists we have flown here. (What was the BigDog ratio of active jihadists per muslims imported?)
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/taliban-holds-huge-victory-parade-showing-us-military-hardware
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/09/islamism_triumphant.html
http://ace.mu.nu/archives/395443.php
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jizya
https://americanmind.org/salvo/importing-enemies/
Teach your children that when being gang-raped by Afghan youths, to just close their eyes and think of vibrant diversity!
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/wisconsin-towns-await-influx-of-afghans-and-wonder-what-it-will-mean/ar-AANQyqg
https://issuesinsights.com/2021/09/01/has-a-biden-fueled-terrorism-surge-already-begun/
-
The global jihad is tanned, rested and ready. They now have the A-stan base back, a massive amount of modern weapons, cash and most importantly, a new narrative of how America was defeated and ran away in chaos.
Oh, and hundreds, if not thousands of jihadists we have flown here. (What was the BigDog ratio of active jihadists per muslims imported?)
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/taliban-holds-huge-victory-parade-showing-us-military-hardware
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/09/islamism_triumphant.html
http://ace.mu.nu/archives/395443.php
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jizya
https://americanmind.org/salvo/importing-enemies/
Teach your children that when being gang-raped by Afghan youths, to just close their eyes and think of vibrant diversity!
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/wisconsin-towns-await-influx-of-afghans-and-wonder-what-it-will-mean/ar-AANQyqg
https://issuesinsights.com/2021/09/01/has-a-biden-fueled-terrorism-surge-already-begun/
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/09/exclusive-biden-administration-sending-afghans-swing-states-will-housed-fed/
-
The global jihad is tanned, rested and ready. They now have the A-stan base back, a massive amount of modern weapons, cash and most importantly, a new narrative of how America was defeated and ran away in chaos.
Oh, and hundreds, if not thousands of jihadists we have flown here. (What was the BigDog ratio of active jihadists per muslims imported?)
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/taliban-holds-huge-victory-parade-showing-us-military-hardware
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/09/islamism_triumphant.html
http://ace.mu.nu/archives/395443.php
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jizya
https://americanmind.org/salvo/importing-enemies/
Teach your children that when being gang-raped by Afghan youths, to just close their eyes and think of vibrant diversity!
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/wisconsin-towns-await-influx-of-afghans-and-wonder-what-it-will-mean/ar-AANQyqg
https://issuesinsights.com/2021/09/01/has-a-biden-fueled-terrorism-surge-already-begun/
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/09/exclusive-biden-administration-sending-afghans-swing-states-will-housed-fed/
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/islamic-terrorist-goes-stabbing-spree-new-zealand-supermarket
Gee, I wonder why...
-
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/islamic-terrorist-goes-stabbing-spree-new-zealand-supermarket
Gee, I wonder why...
One individual gunned people in Mosques in 2015 - "leading to a widespread anti-gun campaign", but this atrocity was "one individual, not a culture, not a religion", not a weapon. Thank God someone (law enforcement present) had a gun. What else would have stopped him?
His hatred is not a culture, not a religion - unless that culture and that religion is preaching this.
He "was inspired by ISIS" - What is the root of the first word in ISIS (Islam) and why can't they say that?
-
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/biden-orders-declassification-review-of-fbi-9-11-investigation/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=breaking&utm_campaign=newstrack&utm_term=24946371
-
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/06/dylann_roof_the_confederate_flag_and_the_logic_of_the_left.html
Funny how there seem to be different standards...
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/islamic-terrorist-goes-stabbing-spree-new-zealand-supermarket
Gee, I wonder why...
One individual gunned people in Mosques in 2015 - "leading to a widespread anti-gun campaign", but this atrocity was "one individual, not a culture, not a religion", not a weapon. Thank God someone (law enforcement present) had a gun. What else would have stopped him?
His hatred is not a culture, not a religion - unless that culture and that religion is preaching this.
He "was inspired by ISIS" - What is the root of the first word in ISIS (Islam) and why can't they say that?
-
The global jihad is tanned, rested and ready. They now have the A-stan base back, a massive amount of modern weapons, cash and most importantly, a new narrative of how America was defeated and ran away in chaos.
Oh, and hundreds, if not thousands of jihadists we have flown here. (What was the BigDog ratio of active jihadists per muslims imported?)
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/taliban-holds-huge-victory-parade-showing-us-military-hardware
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/09/islamism_triumphant.html
http://ace.mu.nu/archives/395443.php
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jizya
https://americanmind.org/salvo/importing-enemies/
Teach your children that when being gang-raped by Afghan youths, to just close their eyes and think of vibrant diversity!
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/wisconsin-towns-await-influx-of-afghans-and-wonder-what-it-will-mean/ar-AANQyqg
https://issuesinsights.com/2021/09/01/has-a-biden-fueled-terrorism-surge-already-begun/
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/09/exclusive-biden-administration-sending-afghans-swing-states-will-housed-fed/
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/islamic-terrorist-goes-stabbing-spree-new-zealand-supermarket
Gee, I wonder why...
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9956217/Male-Afghan-evacuees-bringing-child-brides-US.html
-
https://nationalinterest.org/feature/ive-worked-refugees-decades-europes-afghan-crime-wave-mind-21506
-
The global jihad is tanned, rested and ready. They now have the A-stan base back, a massive amount of modern weapons, cash and most importantly, a new narrative of how America was defeated and ran away in chaos.
Oh, and hundreds, if not thousands of jihadists we have flown here. (What was the BigDog ratio of active jihadists per muslims imported?)
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/taliban-holds-huge-victory-parade-showing-us-military-hardware
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/09/islamism_triumphant.html
http://ace.mu.nu/archives/395443.php
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jizya
https://americanmind.org/salvo/importing-enemies/
Teach your children that when being gang-raped by Afghan youths, to just close their eyes and think of vibrant diversity!
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/wisconsin-towns-await-influx-of-afghans-and-wonder-what-it-will-mean/ar-AANQyqg
https://issuesinsights.com/2021/09/01/has-a-biden-fueled-terrorism-surge-already-begun/
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/09/exclusive-biden-administration-sending-afghans-swing-states-will-housed-fed/
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/islamic-terrorist-goes-stabbing-spree-new-zealand-supermarket
Gee, I wonder why...
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9956217/Male-Afghan-evacuees-bringing-child-brides-US.html
https://tennesseestar.com/2021/09/07/afghan-refugee-stopped-on-u-s-bound-flight-with-explosive-materials-but-terrorism-not-suspected/
-
The global jihad is tanned, rested and ready. They now have the A-stan base back, a massive amount of modern weapons, cash and most importantly, a new narrative of how America was defeated and ran away in chaos.
Oh, and hundreds, if not thousands of jihadists we have flown here. (What was the BigDog ratio of active jihadists per muslims imported?)
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/taliban-holds-huge-victory-parade-showing-us-military-hardware
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/09/islamism_triumphant.html
http://ace.mu.nu/archives/395443.php
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jizya
https://americanmind.org/salvo/importing-enemies/
Teach your children that when being gang-raped by Afghan youths, to just close their eyes and think of vibrant diversity!
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/wisconsin-towns-await-influx-of-afghans-and-wonder-what-it-will-mean/ar-AANQyqg
https://issuesinsights.com/2021/09/01/has-a-biden-fueled-terrorism-surge-already-begun/
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/09/exclusive-biden-administration-sending-afghans-swing-states-will-housed-fed/
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/islamic-terrorist-goes-stabbing-spree-new-zealand-supermarket
Gee, I wonder why...
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9956217/Male-Afghan-evacuees-bringing-child-brides-US.html
https://tennesseestar.com/2021/09/07/afghan-refugee-stopped-on-u-s-bound-flight-with-explosive-materials-but-terrorism-not-suspected/
https://media.gab.com/system/media_attachments/files/084/402/046/original/ac55a4638341cfeb.jpg
(https://media.gab.com/system/media_attachments/files/084/402/046/original/ac55a4638341cfeb.jpg)
-
The global jihad is tanned, rested and ready. They now have the A-stan base back, a massive amount of modern weapons, cash and most importantly, a new narrative of how America was defeated and ran away in chaos.
Oh, and hundreds, if not thousands of jihadists we have flown here. (What was the BigDog ratio of active jihadists per muslims imported?)
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/taliban-holds-huge-victory-parade-showing-us-military-hardware
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/09/islamism_triumphant.html
http://ace.mu.nu/archives/395443.php
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jizya
https://americanmind.org/salvo/importing-enemies/
Teach your children that when being gang-raped by Afghan youths, to just close their eyes and think of vibrant diversity!
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/wisconsin-towns-await-influx-of-afghans-and-wonder-what-it-will-mean/ar-AANQyqg
https://issuesinsights.com/2021/09/01/has-a-biden-fueled-terrorism-surge-already-begun/
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/09/exclusive-biden-administration-sending-afghans-swing-states-will-housed-fed/
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/islamic-terrorist-goes-stabbing-spree-new-zealand-supermarket
Gee, I wonder why...
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9956217/Male-Afghan-evacuees-bringing-child-brides-US.html
https://tennesseestar.com/2021/09/07/afghan-refugee-stopped-on-u-s-bound-flight-with-explosive-materials-but-terrorism-not-suspected/
https://media.gab.com/system/media_attachments/files/084/402/046/original/ac55a4638341cfeb.jpg
(https://media.gab.com/system/media_attachments/files/084/402/046/original/ac55a4638341cfeb.jpg)
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/robert-spencer/2021/09/08/bidens-handlers-want-you-to-cough-up-6-4-billion-to-resettle-94000-afghans-in-the-u-s-n1477014
-
http://dogbrothers.com/saved-by-the-militia/
-
The global jihad is tanned, rested and ready. They now have the A-stan base back, a massive amount of modern weapons, cash and most importantly, a new narrative of how America was defeated and ran away in chaos.
Oh, and hundreds, if not thousands of jihadists we have flown here. (What was the BigDog ratio of active jihadists per muslims imported?)
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/taliban-holds-huge-victory-parade-showing-us-military-hardware
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/09/islamism_triumphant.html
http://ace.mu.nu/archives/395443.php
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jizya
https://americanmind.org/salvo/importing-enemies/
Teach your children that when being gang-raped by Afghan youths, to just close their eyes and think of vibrant diversity!
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/wisconsin-towns-await-influx-of-afghans-and-wonder-what-it-will-mean/ar-AANQyqg
https://issuesinsights.com/2021/09/01/has-a-biden-fueled-terrorism-surge-already-begun/
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/09/exclusive-biden-administration-sending-afghans-swing-states-will-housed-fed/
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/islamic-terrorist-goes-stabbing-spree-new-zealand-supermarket
Gee, I wonder why...
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9956217/Male-Afghan-evacuees-bringing-child-brides-US.html
https://tennesseestar.com/2021/09/07/afghan-refugee-stopped-on-u-s-bound-flight-with-explosive-materials-but-terrorism-not-suspected/
https://media.gab.com/system/media_attachments/files/084/402/046/original/ac55a4638341cfeb.jpg
(https://media.gab.com/system/media_attachments/files/084/402/046/original/ac55a4638341cfeb.jpg)
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/robert-spencer/2021/09/08/bidens-handlers-want-you-to-cough-up-6-4-billion-to-resettle-94000-afghans-in-the-u-s-n1477014
https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/66603.html
-
GM: Please post that in Homeland Security thread. TY
=============================================
Rambling Rumination: "Let's Roll!"
by Marc "Crafty Dog" Denny
(c) 2016
I:
We all know of the "well-regulated militia" of our Second Amendment. It is very much worth noting that in the usage of when the Bill of Rights was written, "regulated" did NOT mean "regulations". It meant "smoothly running". Thus, an accurate watch could be said to be "well regulated".
At the time of the writing of the Second Amendment, fresh from the memories of the standing army of the British, our Founding Fathers did not envision a standing army. That is why we have the Third Amendment (no quartering of troops in our homes) and we have a Second Amendment. The security of our country against all enemies, both foreign and domestic, resides with "We the people".
In times of danger, those subject to being called up were expected to show up WITH THEIR GUNS to fight in defense of our country. In my clear opinion, this means we were expected to have guns suitable for a foot soldier. In those days it was a musket. Today this includes the technology of our time: semi-automatic rifles which are often misnamed by those who would disarm us and those who have been deceived by them as "assault rifles". To say otherwise would be as logical as excluding radio, TV, and the internet from the First Amendment.
(Though the appearance of each can be similar, the difference is this: A semi-auto such as a civilian may own, requires one pull of the trigger for each shot. An assault rifle of a soldier includes an automatic function whereby bullets come out as long as the trigger is held down.)
This makes perfect sense.
A militia that would have to have foot soldier arms distributed by the government before it would be ready to fight when the nation was under attack would not be "well-regulated"; it would run quite poorly; it would be a fustercluck.
ll:
Some argue that now that we have a standing army, we no longer need a militia, and that the Second Amendment is a atavistic echo of a time gone by.
Let us be perfectly clear. "Enemies both foreign and domestic" includes our government should it ever seek to slip the bonds of our Constitution and take our freedoms. Remember this well: the American Revolution ignited at the battles of Lexington and Concord when the British came to confiscate our guns.
It was thus then, and it is thus now.
Some argue that this is foolish. "Look at the military power of our Government!" they say. "Do you think you can fight that?"
The answer to this argument has two parts.
First, I challenge the assumption implicit in it that our military would turn upon us.
Second, thanks to our Second Amendment, we are no less well-armed than the Taliban or any of a number of other guerrilla movements which this same power has failed to defeat.
III:
This is not to say that there are not to be any sort of laws or regulations.
Our State governments are "the laboratory of democracy" where all this is to be sorted out.
Open carry? Concealed carry? Minimum age? Training required? Criteria for extinguishing Second Amendment rights?
All these are things to be worked out by the States under their Tenth Amendment rights under what is known as "the police power".
lV:
Of course when it comes to interstate travel or foreign threat, there is a proper constitutional role for the Federal government.
For example as I type these words there is vigorous debate over whether people on the "No Fly" list should be allowed to purchase guns.
At first glance, this looks obvious-- "Of course not!"-- but the problem is this and it is a profound one: The No-Fly List is a secret governmentally generated list with no Due Process concerning who is put on it and no Due Process for getting off it.
This is a formula for massive mischief!!!
In that flying is not a constitutionally protected right, the No Fly List passes muster as far as flying goes, but in sharp contrast our Second Amendment rights (and implicitly our Ninth Amendment right to self-defense) are fundamental constitutional rights and by definition losing these rights requires proper "Due Process" by Constitutional standards.
This is not a line to be crossed in the passions of the moment-- passions often fomented by those who seek to disarm us!!!
As can be readily imagined by anyone who has dealt with governmental bureaucracies (in my case it was as a lawyer in Washington DC), many of those on the list are put on by mistake. In my readings of those who have done serious work looking into this, I am consistently running into the number of 35% of those on the list not belonging there. This means literally hundreds of thousands of innocent people are on the list!!! -- which if I have the number correct is the better part of one million names.
It may be due to a name similar to a suspect, or even a name spelled similarly to a suspect or some innocent behavior.
Senator Ted Kennedy was put on the list and so was Congressman John Lewis. Of course they were promptly removed but so too was standout reporter Steve Hayes because he bought a one-way ticket to Turkey where he got on a cruise ship. Despite his public recognition as a reporter, he spent many Kafkaesque months trying to get off it to no avail until anchor Brett Baier spoke to DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson ON THE AIR about his case.
Obviously none of us has the political muscle of a US Senator or Congressman or an anchor who can shame the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security!
The truth is simple and clear: The No Fly List has no Due Process for our fundamental Second Amendment rights and until it does (For quite some time Republican Senator Cornier has had a bill which has been rejected by the Democrats) the No Fly List is an insufficient basis for extinguishing the Second Amendment rights of nearly one million Americans
An additional point: Right now our executive branch is led by those who see the problem as "extremism"-- be it Muslim, Tea Party, Christian or otherwise.
Indeed, as best as I can tell an unspoken reason for the determination to not identify the danger to our country as Islamic Fascism (or some other similar name) is to not "let go to waste" the opportunity to disarm as many as of possible political enemies of the the current administration , , , but perhaps I digress , , ,
V:
At the end of the day at Dog Brothers Gathering of the Pack one year after 911, I spontaneously spoke of 911 and how the only thing that worked on that day was not the government or the police.
http://dogbrothers.com/saved-by-the-militia/
Two planes hit the World Trade Center. One missed the White House and hit the Pentagon. The last plane, Flight 93, presumably was headed for the Capitol building and it was "we the unorganized militia" on Flight 93 who answered Todd Beamer's call to action "Let's roll!" and took that plane down.
VI:
As you can see from the article accompanying my impromptu talk, Title 10, Section 313 speaks to the "unorganized militia".
Here is my understanding-- whether the various state governments do their part in maintaining the apparatus required to have a "well-regulated milita" or not, the militia continues in "unorganized" form.
THE FUNDAMENTAL CONSTITUTIONAL UNDERSTANDING THAT DEFENSE OF THE NATION IS IN OUR HANDS REMAINS. IT IS NOT EXTINGUISED BY THE FAILURE OF THE STATES OR THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO DO THEIR PART.
VII:
Once again we see the wisdom of our Founding Fathers unchanged by time or technology. Indeed it is precisely due to technology that our enemy is now able to bypass our military and our police.
Ben Franklin warned us "Those who give up their liberty in search of safety deserve neither."
Still many people call for what amounts to an end of privacy of our personal communication (Fourth Amendment, Ninth Amendment) even though "encryption" and the "dark web" increasingly make such surveillance superfluous.
No longer is there a need to plot, plan, and direct as was the case with the attacks on the World Trade Center in 1993 and 2001. Now there is only the need to inspire the "radicalized" to "go operational" in lone wolf actions with guns or, in their absence, bombs.
We see this again and again, be it the Tsarnaev brothers in Boston, the jihadi hit team in San Bernardino, or now in Orlando.
VIII:
So, what are we the people to do in such moments?
First and foremost is to "man up". Be Odysseus in Cyclops' cave. He did not pray for Cyclops to eat him last-- he came up with a plan and acted! While Cyclops slept, he speared him in his one eye and came up with a clever plan to escape with the sheep and by so doing saved not only himself but his crew.
(If you don't get this literary reference, it is from Homer's "The Odyssey". Read it-- and demand a refund from whomever claimed to have educated you!)
If you and others are being held as hostages in a bathroom until it is your turn to die as we saw in Orlando, DO SOMETHING. Rip the seat off the toilet and have someone throw a garbage can as the killer comes in while the one with the toilet seat conks him over the head and everyone swarms him.
If you are to die, DIE FIGHTING.
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https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1436671851527380992
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https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1436671851527380992
https://nypost.com/2019/09/07/robert-mueller-helped-saudi-arabia-cover-up-its-role-in-9-11-attacks-suit/
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https://www.steynonline.com/11682/the-years-we-wasted
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https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/taliban-holds-flag-raising-ceremony-same-day-americans-commemorate-911
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https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/jetblue-flight-diverted-after-passenger-storms-cockpit-strangles-flight-attendant
Expect more.
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September 12, 2023
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9/11: The Perfect Op
By: George Friedman
It has been 22 years since the 9/11 attack that destroyed the World Trade Center buildings and a wing of the Pentagon and launched a string of American actions that were both inevitable and ultimately ineffective.
The attack was brilliant in conception. At its core were al-Qaida members who were prepared to go to their certain deaths. They entered the country through legal means about a year before the attack and received a flow of money for their operation. The most important part of the operation was the seizure of airliners that would serve as bombs, with the impact of the aircraft and the ignition of jet fuel serving as the agents of destruction.
Their mission required each of the four aircraft to have at least one pilot, but none of the plotters knew how to fly a plane. Apparently, the training could not take place in the Middle East because, considering the number of trainees, they might be detected. The plan therefore was to obtain flight training in the U.S., where private flying schools are common and where the hijackers would be hidden amid the large number of trainees. The men assigned to the mission had only to fly and navigate planes already airborne. They did not need to know how to take off or land. This oddity might have triggered concern, but the threat was inconceivable at the time.
The planes they chose to hijack seemed to have been thoughtfully selected. The hijackers wanted the aircraft to hit their targets as close to the same time as possible. If there was a wide gap, air defenses would be alerted and scrambled. Since radio contact would not be allowed or the voice would have had a foreign accent, the attackers needed to select planes that could hit their targets before interceptors could take off. When you look at the type of aircraft selected, they were all single-aisle planes, except the one that crashed in Pennsylvania. Taking control of the planes was fairly easy, since the attackers had weapons. (Pre-baggage check screening started after 9/11.) Once the pilots were incapacitated, the attackers took the controls and began changing course to the target. The danger at that point was that passengers, realizing what was happening, would surge toward the cockpit. Given the small number of attackers on board they could be overwhelmed, but a single-aisle plane allowed them to hold back their potential adversaries more easily than a dual-aisle plane. This was likely a deliberate choice.
Their targets were chosen because they were well known, not only in America but especially in the Middle East. Their intention in striking the U.S. was not to paralyze it, since that couldn’t happen anyway. The attack was directed toward the Muslim world, and therefore the significance of the targets had to be widely recognized. The World Trade Center, the Pentagon and another unconfirmed location were chosen. There has been much discussion of what was the target of the fourth plane. My guess, based on the fact that they picked large, visible targets, would be the Capitol, but whatever it was it seems the hijacking failed after the attackers were overwhelmed by the passengers.
As I said, the intent of the attack was to influence Muslims in the Middle East. Al-Qaida saw many of the governments in the region as betraying Islamic principles. It wanted to trigger uprisings against them. In their view, the populations agreed with their loathing of the regimes but were paralyzed by the view that American power was supporting these regimes. If al-Qaida could demonstrate that American power was an illusion and that Islamic bravery could attack the most important U.S. buildings, these populations might conclude that their own regimes – backed, they believed, by U.S. force – could be overthrown. In other words, the 9/11 attack used the U.S. as a platform to demonstrate American weakness to the Muslim world.
But 9/11 did not bring down the American regime. It did trigger U.S. overt and covert operations that in retrospect had more impact on the region than 9/11 had, garnering criticism from many. But these criticisms must be put in perspective. First, the idea that the U.S. would not act against al-Qaida was impossible. Passive speechmaking wouldn’t have been enough of a response politically. The idea that the U.S. could not protect itself had to be countered, even if true. The rage, and fear, of Americans at that moment had to be considered. This was a fundamental reality.
Second, anyone who wasn’t frightened in the wake of 9/11 was not in touch with reality. U.S. intelligence on al-Qaida was clearly inadequate, and this meant that we had no reason not to believe that they had far more deadly weapons, perhaps poison gas or even nuclear weapons. A repeat of the 9/11 attack was possible – even likely – in the minds of some analysts. Given that al-Qaida was hoping that the Americans would attack to prove their hostility to the masses, the U.S. leadership was in one of the most complex positions imaginable. The fear in the United States was palpable and rational. I recall being in Washington three days after 9/11 and staying in the Army and Navy Club, about a couple of blocks from the White House. I was unable to sleep and trying to imagine whether I would feel a nuclear strike or my consciousness would simply disappear. It was a time when the worst-case scenario was the only reasonable consideration.
The 9/11 operation was superb. Men who knew they were going to die mapped out and implemented a major covert operation on selected targets while remaining unnoticed by an excellent security system. But operationally impressive work did not result in the political results they dreamed of. There was no uprising, and regimes came and went in the normal cadence. There was no upheaval and no end to history.
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Second: BTW I realize I failed to pay attention to Benghazi yesterday.
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~ Let's Roll ~
Todd: Hello… Operator…listen to me…I can’t speak very loud. – This is an emergency. I’m a passenger on a United flight to San Francisco.. We have a situation here….Our plane has been hijacked…..can you understand me?
Lisa: (exhaling a deep breath to herself) I understand… Can the hijackers see you talking on the phone?
Todd: No
Lisa: Can you tell me how many hijackers are on the plane?
Todd: There are three that we know of.
Lisa: Can you see any weapons? What kind of weapons do they have?
Todd: Yes…. they don’t have guns….they have knives – they took over the plane with knives.
Lisa: Do you mean…like steak knives?
Todd: No, these are razor knives…like box cutters.
Lisa: Can you tell what country these people are from?
Todd: No…..I don’t know. They sound like they’re from the mid-east.
Lisa: Have they said what they want?
Todd: Someone announced from the cockpit that there was a bomb on board. He said he was the captain and to stay in our seats and stay quiet.
He said that they were meeting these men’s demands and returning to the airport… It was very broken English, and… I’m telling you…it sounded fake!
Lisa: Ok sir, please give me your name.
Todd: My name is Todd Beamer.
Lisa: Ok Todd….my name is Lisa…Do you know your flight number? If you can’t remember, it’s on your ticket.
Todd: It’s United Flight 93.
Lisa: Now Todd, can you try to tell me exactly what happened?
Todd: Two of the hijackers were sitting in first class near the cockpit. A third one was sitting near the back of the coach section. The two up. front got into the cockpit somehow; there was shouting. The third hijacker said he had a bomb. It looks like a bomb. He’s got it tied to his waist with a red belt of some kind.
Lisa: So is the door to the cockpit open?
Todd: No, the hijackers shut it behind them.
Lisa: Has anyone been injured?
Todd: Yes, ..they…they killed one passenger sitting in first class. There’s been lots of shouting. We don’t know if the pilots are dead or alive. A flight attendant told me that the pilot and copilot had been forced from the cockpit and may have been wounded.
Lisa: Where is the 3rd hijacker now Todd?
Todd: He’s near the back of the plane. They forced most of the passengers into first class. There are fourteen of us here in the back. Five are flight attendants. He hasn’t noticed that I slipped into this pantry to get the phone. The guy with the bomb ordered us to sit on the floor in the rear of the plane……….oh Jesus.. Help!
Lisa: Todd….are you ok? Tell me what’s happening!
Todd: Hello…..We’re going down….I think we’re going to crash……Wait – wait a minute. No, we’re leveling off….we’re ok. I think we may be turning around…..That’s it – we changed directions. Do you hear me….we’re flying east again.
Lisa: Ok Todd…. What’s going on with the other passengers?
Todd: Everyone is… really scared. A few passengers with cell phones have made calls to relatives. A guy, Jeremy, was talking to his wife just before the hijacking started. She told him that hijackers had crashed two planes into the World Trade Center……Lisa is that true??
Lisa: Todd…..I have to tell you the truth…..it’s very bad. The World Trade Center is gone. Both of the towers have been destroyed.
Todd: Oh God —help us!
Lisa: A third plane was taken over by terrorists. It crashed into the Pentagon in Washington DC. Our country is under attack….and I’m afraid that your plane may be part of their plan.
Todd: Oh dear God. Dear God…….Lisa, will you do something for me?
Lisa: I’ll try….if I can….Yes.
Todd: I want you to call my wife and my kids for me and tell them what’s happened. Promise me you’ll call..
Lisa: I promise – I’ll call.
Todd: Our home number is 201 353-1073…….You have the same name as my wife…Lisa….We’ve been married for 10 years. She’s pregnant with our 3rd child. Tell her that I love her…….(choking up)..I’ll always love her..(clearing throat) We have two boys.. David, he’s 3 and Andrew, he’s 1…..Tell them……(choking) tell them that their daddy loves them and that he is so proud of them. (clearing throat again) Our baby is due January 12th…..I saw an ultra sound…..it was great….we still don’t know if it’s a girl or a boy………Lisa?
Lisa: (barely able to speak) I’ll tell them, I promise Todd.
Todd: I’m going back to the group—if I can get back I will…
Lisa: Todd, leave this line open…are you still there?……
Lisa: (dials the phone..) Hello, FBI, my name is Lisa Jefferson, I’m a telephone supervisor for GTE. I need to report a terrorist hijacking of a United Airlines Flight 93….Yes I’ll hold.
Goodwin: Hello, this is Agent Goodwin.. I understand you have a hijacking situation?
Lisa: Yes sir, I’ve been talking with a passenger, a Todd Beamer, on Flight 93 who managed to get to an air phone unnoticed.
Goodwin: Where did this flight originate, and what was its destination?
Lisa: The flight left Newark New Jersey at 8 A.M. departing for San Francisco. The hijackers took over the plane shortly after takeoff, and several minutes later the plane changed course – it is now flying east.
Goodwin: Ms. Jefferson…I need to talk to someone aboard that plane. Can you get me thru to the planes phone?
Lisa: I still have that line open sir, I can patch you through on a conference call…hold a mo…..
Todd: Hello Lisa, Lisa are you there?
Lisa: Yes, I’m here. Todd, I made a call to the FBI, Agent Goodwin is on the line and will be talking to you as well.
Todd: The others all know that this isn’t your normal hijacking. Jeremy called his wife again on his cell phone. She told him more about the World Trade Center and all.
Goodwin: Hello Todd. This is Agent Goodwin with the FBI. We have been monitoring your flight. Your plane is on a course for Washington, DC. These terrorists sent two planes into the World Trade Center and one plane into the Pentagon. Our best guess is that they plan to fly your plane into either the White House or the United States Capital Building.
Todd: I understand…hold on……I’ll…….I’ll be back..
Lisa: Mr. Goodwin, how much time do they have before they get to Washington?
Goodwin: Not long ma’am. They changed course over Cleveland; they’re approaching Pittsburgh now. Washington may be twenty minutes away.
Todd: (breathing a little heavier) The plane seems to be changing directions just a little. It’s getting pretty rough up here. The plane is flying real erratic….We’re not going to make it out of here. Listen to me….I want you to hear this….I have talked with the others….we have decided we would not be pawns in these hijackers suicidal plot.
Lisa: Todd, what are you going to do?
Todd: We’ve hatched a plan. Four of us are going to rush the hijacker with the bomb. After we take him out, we’ll break into the cockpit. A stewardess is getting some boiling water to throw on the hijackers at the controls. We’ll get them….and we’ll take them out. Lisa, …..will you do one last thing for me?
Lisa: Yes…What is it?
Todd: Would you pray with me?
They pray: Our father which art in Heaven
Hallowed be thy name,
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
And forgive us our trespasses
As we forgive our trespassers,
And lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from evil
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory
Forever…..Amen
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want…
He makes me to lie down in green pastures
He leads me beside the still waters
He restores my soul
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for His name’s sake
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
I will fear no evil, for thou art with me…..
Todd: (softer) God help me…Jesus help me….(clears throat and louder)
Are you guys ready?……..
Let’s Roll……………………
#neverforget