September 06, 2007
The Eye of the 9/11 Storm
By Victor Davis Hanson

Another anniversary of 9/11 is near. It's been nearly six long years since a catastrophic attack on our shores, and we've understandably turned to infighting and second-guessing - about everything from Guantanamo to wiretaps.

But this six-year calm, unfortunately, has allowed some Americans to believe that "our war on terror" remedy is worse than the original Islamic terrorist disease.

We see this self-recrimination reflected in our current Hollywood fare, which dwells on the evil of American interventions overseas, largely ignoring the courage of our soldiers or the atrocities committed by jihadists. Our tell-all bestsellers, endless lawsuits and congressional investigations have deflected our 9/11-era furor away from the terrorists to ourselves.

All this tail-chasing comes only with the illusory thinking that the present lull is the same as perpetual peace. Have we forgotten that experts still insist that another strike will come, carried out by those already here or shortly to enter the United States?

Look back at jihadist near-misses in this country since 9/11 - along with a disturbing recent Pew poll that found one in four younger Muslim-Americans approve, at least in certain circumstances, of suicide bombing to "defend Islam" - and the dire predictions seem plausible.

Recall the jihadists arrested in Albany and near Buffalo, N.Y., or the recently uncovered plot to attack Fort Dix in New Jersey. Past foiled targets included the Sears Tower in Chicago, the Brooklyn Bridge, JFK Airport in New York and the New York Stock Exchange.

Some angry loners - mouthing jihadist propaganda or anti-American slogans - simply act on their own to try to kill Americans. Iranian-American college student Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar hit several University of North Carolina classmates with his car in March 2006. Last summer, Omeed Aziz Popal was arrested for a hit-and-run rampage in San Francisco. And Naveed Afzal Haq is charged with shooting several women last summer at a Jewish center in Seattle.

Recall also the American residents and citizens with direct connections to al-Qaida's terrorism network.

American Jose Padilla (aka Abdullah al-Muhajir) was just convicted by a jury of terrorist conspiracy. Khalid Abu-al-Dahab, a key al-Qaida recruiter, operated out of California's Silicon Valley. "Sheik" Omar Abdel Rahman advised Egyptian jihadists from his American jail cell - after his conviction for helping to plan the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. U.S. visitor and asylum-seeker Ramzi Yousef was convicted of the same crime. His partner, the indicted American citizen Abdul Rahman Yasin, fled to pre-war Iraq. Another American, Adam Gadahn, regularly narrates al-Qaida communiques.

Khalid Sheik Mohammed - mastermind of the 9/11 mass-murder and the Daniel Pearl decapitation - studied in North Carolina for a number of years. Egyptian-American and U.S. Army veteran Ali Mohamed helped plan the destruction of American embassies in East Africa. The convicted "20th-hijacker" Zacarias Moussaoui attended flight school in Oklahoma.

Two things seem clear here. One: There have been, and are now, plenty of Islamic terrorists and their helpers in the United States. And two: We are dangerously shortsighted about the ongoing threat they pose.

Meanwhile, Islamic-American organizations and sympathetic civil-liberties associations file lawsuits about supposed American security excesses and illiberal vigilance.

Last fall, for example, several imams were taken off a flight from Minneapolis when the group's erratic behavior scared fellow passengers. After the incident, one of the so-called "flying imams," Arizonan Omar Shahin, called for boycotts of the involved airline and legislation to stop supposed anti-Muslim profiling.

But the brazen Shahin, it turns out, is more than just a bullied Islamic scholar; he's also helped raise funds for an organization that the U.S. government has tied to Hamas.

Our experts are too often in denial or disarray. Former White House counterterrorism adviser Richard A. Clark, former CIA operative Michael Scheuer and former CIA director George Tenet now make widely publicized strident attacks on ongoing efforts to stop terrorists and level charges against others - and each other. They rarely talk with any humility, much less apprise us of what we can learn from their own failures to stop the 9/11 jihadists during their long tenures.

In short, six years of quiet at home since 9/11 have fooled some into thinking that terrorists pose little danger here - or that we may be doing far too much rather than too little to stop such killers. No matter that this past week a jihadist plot to destroy U.S. facilities in Germany was thwarted.

Others make the mistake of endlessly re-fighting the past six years - who let al-Qaida grow?; who "lost" Osama bin Laden?; who fouled up postwar Iraq? - instead of concentrating on the storm ahead.

Before 2001, the excuse for American complacence and in-fighting was naivete. But what will be the reason for the next successful strike against us by the jihadists?

More naivete - or is it simple hubris?

Victor Davis Hanson is a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and author, most recently, of "A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War." You can reach him by e-mailing author@victorhanson.com.

(c) Tribune Media Services, Inc.

It'll take another major hit on us to re-awaken America to the dangers of Islam. When that happens, who's willing to bet that the Liberal Left will blame Mr. Bush, instead of the Islamic Assholes doing the killing?

Any takers?

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A Liberal is a Man too broadminded to take his own side in a quarrel (Robert Frost 1874-1963).

Neocons: To save America, we need another 9/11
By William
August 10th, 2007 - 2:57 pm

Neocons have been saying this for quite a while.

Today, neocon writer Stu Bykofsky said just that in the Philly Daily News:

America’s fabric is pulling apart like a cheap sweater. What would sew us back together? Another 9/11 attack.

If it is to be, then let it be. It will take another attack on the homeland to quell the chattering of chipmunks and to restore America’s righteous rage and singular purpose to prevail.

Blogger Webutante believes this to be true. So does the chair of the Arkansas Republican Party, Dennis Milligan:

“…all we need is some attacks on American soil like we had on [Sept. 11, 2001], and the naysayers will come around very quickly to appreciate not only the commitment for President Bush, but the sacrifice that has been made by men and women to protect this country”

A 2005 leaked GOP memo said the same thing:

A confidential memo circulating among senior Republican leaders suggests that a new attack by terrorists on U.S. soil could reverse the sagging fortunes of President George W. Bush as well as the GOP and “restore his image as a leader of the American people.”

This neocon yearning for another terrorist attack is a GOP strategy. Couple this with the fact that a new Presidential Directive on plans for operating the government after a terrorist attack has been a closely guarded secret. So closely guarded that a member of the U.S. House on the Homeland Security Committee, DeFazio, D-Ore, was denied permission to even view such portions of this Presidential Directive.

‘Coma had something on this earlier. As did I.

There is no question that the use of fear has been a GOP tactic for influencing the public, particularly the 2004 election. Hey, it worked for the Nazis.

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AMERICA LAND OF THE FREE HOME OF THE BRAVE--BECAUSE OF OUR CONSTITUTION.

Another Al-Qaeda attack will energize America? Why on earth would it do that, if if Osama Bin Laden ’s going to get away with it like he did the last one?

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AMERICA LAND OF THE FREE HOME OF THE BRAVE--BECAUSE OF OUR CONSTITUTION.

For years, the boast of the Bush Administration and its supporters was “There haven’t been any more terrorist attacks since 9-11 thanks to the Bush Administration.” It was their boast of success and competence

Given such a boast, one would think that the implication of another terrorist attack would be that we now had proof positive that the Bush Administration was a complete failure.

But in the crazy, illogical and irrational world of these nutsos, they NOW WELCOME another terrorist attack. And should such occur, they and their allies in the corporate media, will once again try to use it to their advantage by calling for more “Sieg Hiels” for the Chimp.

In their complete lack of consistency and intellectual integrity, these people have absolutely no shame, and will stoop to ANY depth to get people to support their way.

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AMERICA LAND OF THE FREE HOME OF THE BRAVE--BECAUSE OF OUR CONSTITUTION.

Hey Rasta...I heard Bush is taking a vacation. DUCK!!!!!

You are an idiot wrapped in a moron. Why don't you punch out for the day. You've become just too stupid to be taken seriously.

What's wrong FUCK-FACE.....you don't like two different views of opinions you immature fence straddling moderate!!!

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AMERICA LAND OF THE FREE HOME OF THE BRAVE--BECAUSE OF OUR CONSTITUTION.

Hey Skinny......before you DUCK....just think "Neocon-Rethuglican "UN PATRIOTIC ACTS I & II!!!!!!

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AMERICA LAND OF THE FREE HOME OF THE BRAVE--BECAUSE OF OUR CONSTITUTION.

The way it looks right now Rasta,,,it'll take another major hit on us to finally get the Loony Left to realize we're at War. Possibly more than one...

With decades of suicidal Islamic Assholes doing their best to kill us, you'd think Liberal Dems might of caught on to that fact. But nope, for the most part, they continue to keep their heads up their ass.

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A Liberal is a Man too broadminded to take his own side in a quarrel (Robert Frost 1874-1963).