Source: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/blogphotos/Blog_911_Statue_Liberty.jpg
We were brutally attacked that day eight years ago .
Don't forget we were hit many times before, though we didn't really feel those hits enough to really respond. Since our enemies have been killing us for far longer than 8 years, what kind of chance do you think there is that they'll stop trying to kill us if we pull back to our shores?
Today I remember that we are at war. And I remember that I'm still furious at the bastards who did this. And I know that there are more of those lunatics out there ready to kill whoever is handy--whether American or Moslem. So today I give thinks that we have outstanding men and women out there every day at the sharp end of the spear fighting our jihadi enemies.
UPDATE: Peters has a stick handy. Truly, we fight Islamo-fascism on inertia only--killing our enemies in campaigns that started before we forgot 9/11 and started granting rights to our terrorist enemies and reaching out to the thug states that support them. We want the war to be over, and so try to pretend it is over.
Our enemies do not suffer from such idiocy. Whatever else we can say about their depravity, they never forget that they want to kill lots of us and even destroy and conquer us, as insane as that seems to our ears.
New York City has not experienced the nightmare vision of urban terrorism turning the city into a fortress that so many assumed was the city's future. Yet this success, too, may yet falter as the inertia that propels our efforts to defeat the jihadis peters out.
But inertia will carry us a little farther, because our troops have not forgotten why they fight:
It's nearly eight years since U.S. forces invaded to oust the Taliban and hunt for al-Qaida leaders, including Osama bin Laden, who remains at large. Now soldiers like Applegate are fighting a war that is shifting its focus amid waning public support.
Many troops called Friday's anniversary a galvanizing event, and said marking the day reminds them that the U.S. mission here is important.
"It's still one of the reasons why we're here. Sept. 11 is part of it. For those of us who see the repercussions of fighting, it's still there every day," said Air Force Capt. Christopher Dupuis, 26, of Lacey, Washington.
God love them. Even when our civilian leaders forget why we fight, our troops carry on, motivated to do their duty and kill our enemies. They still know why we fight.
UPDATE: Related thoughts from the next day.
