Today marks 20 years since the worst act of terrorism on U.S. soil. On this day, fanatics practicing the most extreme form of Islam hijacked four international flights but—for the first time in U.S. history—they used them as weapons instead of bargaining chips.
The first thing most of us heard was that an airplane had “crashed” into one of the Twin Towers in a bizarre “accident” at 8:46 a.m.
When the second plane hit the World Trade Center at 9:03 a.m., and another hit the Pentagon 34 minutes after that, we knew it was no accident.
At 10:03 a.m., a fourth jet went down in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, taken down when a would-be hostage named Todd Beamer fought back with his fellow passengers against the terrorists with the immortal words, “Let’s roll!”
Accounts vary whether that was headed for the White House or the U.S. Capitol building—but thanks to Todd and the brave souls on-board, this jumbo airliner never became a terrorists’ Weapon of Mass Destruction against the American people. Instead, it became the hijackers’ grave. Today, a monument sits in the small, rural, central Pennsylvanian town that marks the spot—a monument to the futility of violent Islamist extremists when they try to take on motivated American citizens.
By this time, firemen and first responders rushed into the cloud of dust and debris in New York City, desperate to save anyone that they could. Their bravery and selflessness would turn them into martyrs at 10:28 a.m., when the towers collapsed on top of them, burying victims and rescuers in one gray, powdery grave.
When it was all said and done, 2,996 people were dead.
So much has happened since then, and so little has changed.
Everyone spent the next few days glued to their TVs and radios for news. Some surfed the relatively new phenomenon called the internet, desperate for any information.
Everybody was on edge. Everyone assumed another wave of attacks would be coming.
And everybody, but everybody, knew this required an immediate response.
First, we had to learn a new vocabulary. It was 20 years ago today that most Americans first learned words like “al-Qaida,” “Osama bin Laden,” and “Taliban.” For most, it would be the first time they could tell Afghanistan from Pakistan.
Soon, we’d learn other words and terms, like Operation Enduring Freedom, bunker-buster, and MOAB.
We sprang into action. American patriotism hit a high, and confidence in the new president George W. Bush hit 90 percent. We decimated the Taliban, took control of Kabul, and set on the search for the mastermind behind the 19 hijackers.
Then, our “experts” screwed everything up—and that’s the story of most of the next two decades.
Somehow, the “experts” decided we had to invade Iraq. Saddam Hussein was somehow tied to the whole thing. He was probably arming them. And, did you hear, he had a huge stockpile of WMDs and might even be developing nuclear weapons.
Colin Powell went on TV to show us the chemical and biological weapons the crafty Saddam Hussein might use if he just had a chance. No time to wait; we needed to attack now.
Before long, we were at war all over the place, with drone strikes ripping up and down the Middle East. The “experts” said that locals wouldn’t mind—and they definitely wouldn’t join the terrorist war against America because of it.
We even eventually killed Osama bin Laden—but the war never ended.
And we weren’t just attacking terrorists. Our “experts” told us this was a once-in-a-generation chance to totally remake the entire Muslim world. We’d help them become a full-fledged democracy, turn their backwards tribal society into feminists who love gay people, even transform their religion.; one day, you couldn’t tell Kabul or Baghdad from London, Paris, or San Francisco. All it took was just a little “nation-building” and a lot of blood and treasure.
Then came the war in Iraq, raising the U.S. death toll to 15,000.
Then there’s the financial cost: We’ve already paid an estimated $2 trillion fighting those two hot spots in the War on Terror—with another $6.5 trillion due by 2050, according to the AP.
And for what?
Like I said, the war never ended— Joe Biden just quit, and he left Americans on the battlefield. He says “about 100” Americans are still there; veterans evacuating those people say it’s multiple times that many.
The same Taliban—and in some cases, the very same people who cozied up to Osama bin Laden—are back in power in Afghanistan. Will it be long before al-Qaida is back?
Americans are poorer, not much safer, and much, much less free thanks to Biden and 20 years worth of “expert” rule.
A DHS molests our mothers and children at the airport. The NSA spies on every phone call, email, text message…and if they could, they’d read every thought you had. The FBI stirs up “domestic terrorists” in entrapment schemes to keep their jobs and exaggerate the threat we pose to each other, while downplaying the threat Islamic fundamentalists pose to the West.
And politicians, listening to those same “experts,” keep Americans divided against each other, so we won’t notice the way they’re robbing us blind, stomping on the Constitution, transforming America, and taking away our freedoms.
We need a generation of citizen activists, of Todd Beamers, who will write emails, run for office, encourage their neighbors to vote, spread the truth, and peacefully take back America.
“Let’s Roll,” America.