9/11: Let there be no buts about today

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NYPost

September 11, 2002 --

* Such as: "The attack on America was horrid, but Islam is a religion of peace."

Perhaps, even if history suggests otherwise.

Today, though, somebody of stature in the Islamic universe needs to stand up and tell the world that Osama bin Laden is a hateful, murderous coward.

Maybe Osama's dead, and maybe he's not; for sure, though, the Wahhabbi brand of Islam that animated 9/11 is alive and festering - and somebody needs to say so.

So could, say, the House of Saud forswear its sotto voce criticism of the United States and its Mideast policies and - just this once - unambiguously condemn both the architects of the Sept. 11, 2001, massacres and the noxious philosopy that animated it?

* Or: "Nobody condones violence, and certainly not the 9/11 attacks, but America sometimes brings the enmity of the world on itself."

Sure it does - because America is a beacon of freedom, of intellectual and moral enlightenment, of hope in a world dark with despotism. The kleptocrats and moral midgets who run too much of it simply can't abide the comparison. They can't clean up their own acts, so they seek to extinguish America's.

* Or: "The provocation was extreme, but America must not act unilaterally in its war on terrorism."

Why the hell not?

Let's be clear on this one point: The United States of America broke the back of the Taliban in Afghanistan as a necessary first step in eradicating the organization responsible for 9/11.

The rest of the job - which is to make America as secure as possible in a fractious, profoundly dangerous world - is far from complete.

Today, on the first anniversary of the murderous attacks, the nation is marshaling the necessary forces for the next step in the campaign.

Where and when will become clear soon enough - and, for sure, President Bush needs to bring Congress on board in one form or another. The Constitution, and common sense, require it.

In the end, though, America likely will be on its own (the Brits and Israel excepted) because fear, envy and crass commercial concerns will conspire to keep its allies and others on the sidelines.

* Finally, "No one wants to see another 9/11 - but if our way of life, our civil liberties, are sacrificed, well, then the terrorists win."

President Lincoln deemed it necessary to suspend habeas corpus to properly address the crisis of his time, and he's remembered as the Great Emancipator.

President Bush asks for closer scrutiny of those who cross the nation's borders, and he's Josef Stalin?

Lincoln conquered insurrection.

Bush contemplates a muddy, 16-acre hole in the ground in Lower Manhattan - mute yet supremely eloquent testimony to the determination of those who hate us so, and into whose hands may already have fallen horrible weapons - and must wonder: What next?

A suitcase nuke?

Worse?

It's not to be ruled out.

And then what becomes of civil liberties?

And then what becomes of America - well and truly the last, best hope of mankind?

IT'S been a year since the fireballs; the exploding, collapsing buildings; the rolling, suffocating gray clouds heavy with pulverized concrete, toxic gases and acrid smoke - and the fearful yet unpanicked people moving quick-step through Manhattan's streets.

New York inspired the nation one year ago this morning.

It's been a hard year, with grave challenges - some met, some yet to be redeemed.

Today is properly a day of recollection and commemoration; of bagpipes and anthems and solemn hymns; of inconsolable pain and of invincible, unending bravery.

For all of that, the threat remains.

It must be defeated.

It will be.

The alternative is too terrible to consider.

No buts about it.

-- Anonymous, September 11, 2002


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