On that Tuesday morning, some planes crashed into some buildings, and more than 3,000 people were killed. For about as long as the French held off the German Army during World War II, a wave a patriotism spread through the land, as flags were flown. We invaded Afghanistan, and contrary to all the experts, made fairly short work of the pro-Al Qaeda regime, with minimal casualties.
Even then, though, we had to show just how tolerant and multi-cultural we were. As virtually a first priority, we had to assure our Muslim citizens (and non-citizens, for that matter) that any action against them would be dealt with in the harshest possible terms. No profiling was to be allowed at airport security, since we all understood that a 95-year-old Irish woman, or 18-month-old blond kid in a stroller, was as much a potential terrorist as an Arab male between 20 and 45, buying his one-way ticket in cash.
Those of us who travel soon realized that security was not much improved, but inconvenience and hassle increased by an order of magnitude. No one would travel unless they absolutely had to, and if given the choice between driving 300 miles or flying, most took to the highway. Small wonder that many of the airlines are in trouble–especially those such as US Air, that specialize in short trips.
The TV pundits kept talking about “moderate Islam,” but could never seem to find a representative from this faction who would condemn the attacks without reservation. No less than an imam, who shared a podium with George W. himself, would later express doubt that the perps could have been Muslim. Maybe they were Israeli.
Many intellectualoids of the American Left insisted that we brought 9/11 on ourselves, with our imperialist policies. And, we were lectured on morality by Europeans of all descriptions. Fancy that! Essential life lessons being preached to us from the birthplace of Communism, Nazism, and Fascism. Chicken soup for the soul from the folks who wrote the book on class privilege, colonial exploitation, and endless bloody conflicts. We should surely listen to our betters, who have in truth been headed mostly downhill since the Renaissance.
On the other hand, we did bring it on ourselves. At some point, we became embarrassed over our success. We lost confidence in the future. We believed the absurd tales of the population bomb, and curtailed our reproductive rate. We imported what we aborted and contracepted, and changed the demographics of America. But tolerant, always tolerant, we conjured up a Galilean flower child Jesus, who bears not a scintilla of resemblance to the Gospel figure.
Churches re-invented themselves into “non-judgmental” institutions, somehow forgetting that Jesus spent more than one-third of his time calling people names, and admonishing them to repent. You could look it up.
We all got in touch with our feminine side, got mushy, and ended up not standing for anything. If we could tolerate a white trash degenerate as a two-term president, we could surely tolerate the Mohammeds, Abduls, and Osamas, who would set up terrorist cells and plot in the name of Allah. And tolerate them we did.
When we discovered one of our own fighting against us, the word “treason” was hardly mentioned. We could have used John Walker Lindh’s permissive family structure as a case study for his wrecked life, replete with an airhead mother, father turned gay, and a more than indulgent environment, but that would have been mean-spirited. We made an example out of him, all right, but it reflected only our weakness and lack of conviction.
We bought into “It’s the economy, stupid,” and now we’re morally and culturally bankrupt.
We can raise an army of 10 million men, and engage in military adventures the world over, winning every single battle. But until we cure the cancer at home, the war is surely lost.