On this anniversary of September 11, 2001 I look back and see all of the changes both good and bad. How my country pulled together and how others have tried to undermine this “War on Terror”. This is a war like no other in recent history. These people who attacked us on 9-11 don’t want our land. They don’t want us to be their slaves. They want all of us dead.  They want to destroy our way of life and they want to kill anyone who does not worship like they do, plain and simple.

 

What puzzles me to this day is why our president has not taken a more active role in promoting the Republican Party and exposing the Democratic Party and their exploits, primarily those that have hurt his administration and the prosecution of the war. I do think that President Bush needs to do more plain talking like he did earlier this week (September 6, 2006). He spoke of the overseas prisons where some of the terrorists were held. He spoke about how Congress needs to write legislation that will allow him to enforce justice on enemy prisoners without the interference from the Supreme Court.

 

This “War on Terror” started before September 11th 2001 and you only have to look back about 26 years ago when Muslim extremists took our embassy hostage in Teheran, Iran. Then President Jimmy Carter realized the importance of the Straits of Hormuz (where then 90% of the worlds oil moved). President Carter addressed the nation and said that an attack on the straits would be considered an attack on the free world and would mean all out war. After he said that he did nothing but a single attempt that failed in the desert of Iran. It wasn’t until Ronald Reagan was elected President did Iran give up the embassy hostages. Reagan’s plain talk and willingness to take action was all that Iran needed to gain the hostages release.

 

Bill Clinton paid little serious attention to the problems and threats to name just a few:

 

bulletFebruary 26,1993: The first attack on the World Trade Center.
bulletJune 14—June 19, 1995: The Budyonnovsk hospital hostage crisis, in which one-hundred-five civilians and twenty-five Russian troops were killed following an attack by Chechen Islamists.
bulletJuly—October, 1995: Bombings in France by Islamic terrorists led by Khaled Kelkal injured more than one hundred killed more than one-hundred.
bulletNovember 13, 1995: Bombing of OPM-SANG building in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia kills seven.
bulletNovember 19, 1995: Bombing of Egyptian Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan kills nineteen.
bulletJanuary 1996: In Kizlyar, three-hundred-fifty Chechen Islamists took three-thousand hostages in a hospital. The attempt to free them killed sixty-five civilians and soldiers.
bulletFebruary 25 - March 4, 1996: A series of four suicide bombings in Israel leave two-hundred-eighty-our wounded and sixty dead in ten days.
bulletJune 11, 1996: A bomb explodes on a train traveling on the Moscow Metro, injuring twelve and killing four.
bulletJune 25, 1996: The Khobar Towers bombing, carried out by Hezbollah with Iranian support. Nineteen U.S. servicemen were killed and three-hundred wounded.
bulletFebruary 24, 1997: An armed man opens fire on tourists at an observation deck atop the Empire State Building in New York City, United States, killing a Danish national and wounding visitors from several countries. A handwritten note carried by the gunman claims this was a punishment attack against the "enemies of Palestine".
bulletNovember 17, 1997: Massacre in Luxor, Egypt, in which Islamist gunmen attack tourists, killing 62 people.
bulletJanuary 1998: Wandhama Massacre – twenty-four Kashmiri Pandits are massacred by Pakistan-backed Islamists in the city of Wandhama in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
bulletFebruary 14, 1998: Bombings by Islamic Jihadi groups at an election rally in the Indian city of Coimbatore kill sixty people.
bulletAugust 7, 1998: Al Qaeda bombs U.S. embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Nairobi, Kenya, killing two-hundred-forty-five people and injuring four-thousand.
bulletAugust 31 – September 22, 1998: Russian apartment bombings kill approximately three-hundred people, leading Russia into Second Chechen War.
bulletDecember 1998: Jordanian authorities foil a plot to bomb American and Israeli tourists in Jordan, and arrest twenty-eight suspects as part of the 2000 millennium attack plots.
bulletDecember 14, 1998: Ahmed Ressam is arrested on the United States–Canada border in Port Angeles, Washington; he confessed to planning to bomb the Los Angeles International Airport as part of the 2000 millennium attack plots.
bulletDecember 24, 1998: Indian Airlines Flight 814 from Kathmandu, Nepal to Delhi, India is hijacked by Islamic terrorists. One passenger is killed and some hostages are released. After negotiations between the Taliban and the Indian government, the last of the remaining hostages on board Flight 814 are released in exchange for release of 4 terrorists.
bulletJanuary 2000: The last of the 2000 millennium attack plots fails, as the boat meant to bomb USS The Sullivans sinks.
bulletAugust 8, 2000: A bomb exploded at an underpass in Pushkin Square in Moscow, killing eleven people and wounding more than ninety.
bulletAugust 17, 2000: Two bombs exploded in a shopping center in Riga, Latvia, injuring thirty-five.
bulletOctober 12, 2000: AL Qaeda bombs USS Cole with explosive-laden speedboat, killing seventeen US sailors and wounding forty, off the port coast of Aden, Yemen.

 

Now think about the above mentioned attacks. They were all done by terrorists and were all done during the Clinton Administration. Is there any wonder why terrorists would not think that the United States is a paper tiger? Why didn't Bill Clinton declare a war on terror he had his chance after the first attack on the World Trade Center? What a legacy!

We should always remember those who survived and those who died in those attacks on this  fifth anniversary of September 11,2001. The loss of those who died in the World Trade Towers, The Pentagon and Flight 93 that crashed in Pennsylvania will never be forgotten.

Sincerely,

Jim Gibb

One Persons account of September 11,2001