Eleven Years Ago Today

Today is the eleventh anniversary of the terrorist attacks on Washington and New York.

That's not news, is it?

I'm not sure how I feel about today. And the reason I lack a clear feeling about today is because of the media.

Any one over the of 16 remembers the attacks. Most of us watched them live, and watched the reporting go from a tragic and unexplainable plane crash to an attack. When the Pentagon was hit it became even plainer that there was an orchestrated attack under way.

We watched live as the second plane hit the second tower. We continued to watch live as almost 3000 fellow Americans died. Some by their own hand, in preference to dying in the towers themselves.

We were angry then. We should be angry now. But the images have faded. Where is the video that we all saw that day? The images of the planes hitting the towers; the smoke rising and the bodies falling? The video of men and women both running from and running to the towers? The images of a beautiful blue sky marred by the smoke and dust?

But these images are dangerous. They call out for revenge. On September 12th we were ready to go. Point us to an enemy and get the Hell out of the way. We were eventually pointed to Afghanistan, and then Iraq. As President Bush famously said: "Your either with us or against us".

We have fought Al-Qaeda for almost 11 years. We have found and killed Bin-Laden. We have cut  multiple heads off of the terror snake, but still we aren't done.

And it seems we are losing our resolve. The war has gone on too long; too many deaths. Too much treasure.

The problem is if we quit Al-Qaeda wins. They will get stronger. They will attack us again. and the war will go from being fought by the military in the Middle East to being fought with innocent lives in the Midwest.

Communism became the enemy of the West in the 1930's. We started fighting them in the 1950's, and beat Communism in the 1990's. Every President from Truman to Clinton fought Communism.

We didn't quit. We won.

We had constant reminders of the evils of the enemy. Even though most of the victims were their own citizens, and not ours, we fought. We had a resolve to win.

In 2002 we had a resolve to win this war too. Until the press politicized it; made it Bush's War. Constant reminders of the cost of the war were on TV.

But never footage of the reason for it.

There is the reason I am not sure how to feel about today. It is still politicized, and not just the War on Terror, but even the events of that day themselves.

Right down to Obama spiking the Bin-Laden football as often as he possibly can.

We haven't seen the cost of the war in the last few years. But I guarantee you we will as soon as Romney is sworn in. The death tolls will be come front page news again, and the anti-war protesters, recently dwindled down to a few die-hards (no pun intended) will start to gain in numbers again.

Today is not so much about remembering the men and women who died in the opening salvos of the War on Terror, as it is a weapon to be used by the media to gin up support for or opposition to the President, depending on whether he is friend or foe.

I'll take few minutes today, not just to remember the fallen heros of 9-11, but also those brave souls who have given the final sacrifice in the ongoing war.

And do my level best to forget the media even exists.