Never Forget

Eight years ago, a group of murderers bent on destroying our civilisation ploughed two planes full of passengers into the World Trade Center, another into the Pentagon, and a third crashed in a field in New England thanks to the heroic efforts of the passengers who saved the Capitol or the White House from a similar fate. In all, some 3000 people were murdered. It wasn't the first shot in this war. That happened with the takeover of the American embassy in Tehran in 1979, but it is the first where we recognised that we were at war.

In the aftermath, Coalition forces lead by the United States and Great Britain liberated Afghanistan and Iraq, smashed Al Qaeda's networks, sent the Taleban on the run, and scared the crap out of the world's dictators so bad that Libya handed over its nuclear weapons programme without condition before we even knew it existed. On the downside, mistakes were made, as is always the case, in the execution of the war. We lost the momentum that should have seen a free Syria, Iran, and Pakistan and a quiet Saudi Arabia by now and while we have thwarted many plans, we have lost more innocent lives at places like Bali, Beslan, London, Amsterdam, and Madrid.

Eight years on, things have changed and not for the better. Now Colonel Qadaffi is so confident that he swaggers on the world stage like a superannuated Michael Jackson. Now Iran all but flaunts its nuclear weapons programme. Now Kim Jong Il lobs missiles over the Pacific and terrorists are freed on the flimsiest of excuses while the American President and British Prime minister are "disappointed". Meanwhile, the war is being lead by two men who refuse to even recognise it as a war. One sees it as an "overseas contingency" that is nothing but a political embarrassment and a distraction that he'd rather would fade away so he can concentrate on being the first god president and the other thinks the Jihadists are mere criminals and that he can starve the armed forces of equipment, manpower, and leadership while expecting them to lay down their lives for a queen and country he stopped believing in decades ago.

Eight years ago, we had no idea what was coming next and I well remember sitting in my living room having a very serious discussion with a friend about what handguns we should buy. Now I have the horrible feeling that we'll be having that conversation again in the near future.

Update: James Lileks has his own take on the day: