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2008 Campaign

Family Security Matters does not stand behind or endorse any candidate for president (or any other public office). However, as the President is also Commander-in-Chief and is responsible for setting national security policy, we will be publishing a variety of articles on both the Republican and Democrat candidates for President during this election year. As always, the opinions of our Contributing Editors are their own, and do not necessarily reflect those of Family Security Matters.

IN THIS SECTION

September 11, 2008

Exclusive: 9/11 – Seven Years Later

The Editors

FSM contributing editors share their remembrances of that fateful day – and look to the challenges we continue to face in an uncertain future.

1. Christopher Adamo

2. Colonel Kenneth Allard (US Army, ret.)

3. Roger Aronoff

4. James Jay Carafano

5. Alan Caruba

6. Candace DeRussy

7. Laina Farhat

8. Gabriel Garnica, Esq.

9. Joel Himelfarb

10. M. Zuhdi Jasser

11. Ruth King

12. Jim Kouri

13. Rita Kramer

14. Pam Meister

15. Joan Messner

16. Tom Ordeman

17. Frank Salvato

18. Nancy Salvato

19. Jonathan Strong

20. Joan Swirsky

21. Ph.D. George Weissinger

22. Tim Wilson

The Battle Is Over, but the War is Still On

Chris Adamo

Of greatest significance on this, the seventh anniversary of 9/11 is that in the years that followed, no repeat has taken place. Initially, Americans were almost universally convinced that a major follow-up of some sort would occur, possibly involving even greater loss of life.

They can rejoice that, as a result of diligent efforts by the current administration to prosecute the terror war on every front, their homeland has been spared any subsequent tragedy of that enormity. Or they can grow indifferent to the ongoing threat of militant Islam and by so doing virtually guarantee an eventual rerun of its horror.

This is an enemy that does not plot in terms of weeks or months, but centuries. And if, after a mere seven years of relative calm, Americans revert to a smug presumption of immunity from the menace of terrorism, the enemy will once again move against us.

The 2008 presidential candidates could not be more starkly contrasted in their philosophies on the war against the Islamists. Barack Obama seeks “common ground” and “understanding” with the monsters who instigated the strikes, while John McCain intends no less than their total defeat.

The contemptible political games which the Clinton Administration played with national security in the decade prior to the 9/11 attacks inarguably set the stage for them. In no less a sense, the direction America takes this November will either ensure a victory over the terrorists, or open the door, once again, for them to wage their sinister war on America and the West.

- FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Christopher G. Adamo is a freelance writer and staff writer for the New Media Alliance. He lives in southeastern Wyoming. He has been active in local and state politics for many years.

It’s Not Too Late

Colonel Kenneth Allard (US Army, ret.)

Seven years, two books and many columns later, what could possibly be left to left to say about 9/11?

An eyewitness to the events of that day in Washington, every emotion was suppressed while struggling to analyze the unimaginable before a transfixed television audience. The smoke was still hanging over lower Manhattan as the network finally arranged transportation to the MSNBC studios in Secaucus, New Jersey. The tears hit then, seeing for myself pictures of the missing posted over the walls of the Newark train station by grief-stricken families.

Lost in all the comforting reassurances – the natural instinct of pundits and politicians alike – was the far deeper meaning of the ancient Scriptures that still echoes across the millennia. As recorded in II Chronicles 7:14: “If my people, who are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray…then will I hear from Heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

On that most awful of days, we were never called to prayer, sacrifice and rededication to the deepest roots of our faith –or our purpose as a people. We have somehow endured: so perhaps it is not too late to renew those vows, both to God and to each other.

- FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Col. (Ret) Kenneth Allard is a former NBC military analyst and the author of Warheads.

America at War: Where do we go from here?

Roger Aronoff

The biggest issue of the day is one that is hardly discussed as we enter the final two months of this crucial presidential election. America and the West are in the middle of a war, but with whom and how it should be carried out remain issues that are barely on the table. The war against Iraq ended April 9, 2003, with the toppling of Saddam Hussein’s statue and government. Since then, we have been fighting with and for the Iraqi people, and their nascent government, hoping to create a democratic ally in a part of the world where none had existed, besides Israel.

The war in Iraq, following the liberation, was often poorly managed until President Bush, resisting the pressure to withdraw based on an arbitrary timeline, changed generals, and appointed Gen. David Petraeus to lead the troops. The results have been dramatic. A majority of benchmarks have been met, and a handover of responsibility to Iraqi leaders, both military and elected, continues at a promising pace. The enemy is radical Islam, in the form of al Qaeda, the Taliban, Hezbollah, Hamas and its chief sponsor, Iran, among others. Who can best continue to keep us safe at home, while taking it to the enemy abroad? And how will they do it? The media must not obscure this monumental issue.

- FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Roger Aronoff is a media analyst with Accuracy in Media, and is the writer/director of "Confronting Iraq: Conflict and Hope."

Time Matters

James Jay Carafano

It took five years to plan 9/11. It took at least three years to organize the rail bombings in Madrid. I used to say that the fact that the United States has not been attacked since the September 11, 2001 strikes on New York and Washington was “interesting, but irrelevant.” Serious terrorists take their time. They want to know with confidence what obstacles they will face and the likely results of their efforts. It is becoming more and more clear, however, that time does matter. Al Qaeda has failed to repeat 9/11 because our counterterrorism efforts have been effective at getting their leaders, thwarting their operations, and dismantling their networks. The United States has simply become a much harder target. And it is not that the terrorists have not tried –by my count the government has broken up at least 19 terrorist conspiracies aimed at attacking on U.S. soil since 9/11. What we must do as a nation is to continue to conduct effective operations overseas, that includes going after al Qaeda in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Here at home we need homeland security programs that are equally effective at keeping Americans, safe, free, and prosperous.

- FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor James Jay Carafano, Ph.D., is a leading expert in defense affaires, intelligence, military operations and strategy, and homeland security at the Heritage Foundation.

Remembering 9/11

Alan Caruba

As someone who can recall dining in the World Trade Center restaurant, Windows on the World, walking the length of its windows that looked out toward New Jersey, across to Brooklyn, and down into the harbor where the Statue of Liberty could be seen, I want to remind everyone of what we lost on September 11, 2001.

We lost our belief in a rational world in just the same way a previous generation, sometimes called the “greatest generation”, lost theirs on December 7, 1941. We won that war. We are still engaged in the present one with Islamists who seek to destroy America and with it the last, best hope of freedom and liberty in the world.

We lost two magnificent structures that bespoke our economic strength. It behooves us not to lose our courage, our determination, our resolve to defeat all of America’s enemies.

- FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Alan Caruba writes a weekly column posted on the Internet site of The National Anxiety Center. He blogs at Warning Signs.

Taking Measure of the Candidates on Security

Candace de Russy

Every 9/11 should stir us to renew our commitment to unceasing vigilance and implacable resolve against those who would destroy us and our way of life. But this 9/11, falling as it does near the end of one of the most portentous presidential campaigns in U.S. history, should also serve to concentrate our minds on unprecedented political developments that could eviscerate our national security, leading to more 9/11s and similarly deadly attacks.

On this 9/11, we must in particular take the measure of a Democrat Party controlled by ideologues who have lurched wildly to the Left, and whose presidential nominee, Barack Obama, is the most radically inclined and risky potential president ever to arise.

After the 9/11/01 slaughter of innocents, the Democrat Party leadership, along with the Leftwing media and academic left, unleashed a vicious and unrelenting assault on President Bush, American foreign policy, our military, and our wartime morale.

This offensive has continued to the present, a time when we face not only international Islamic terrorism but also an Iran on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons, the revival of Russian bellicosity, a resurgent Taliban, an unstable and nuclear-armed Pakistan, and other grave threats to our safety and national interests.

In face of this phenomenal political perversity within a major political party and multiplying hazards – the ingredients of the ultimate “perfect” storm – we must on this 9/11, as ever, rekindle our will to defend ourselves. At the same time, we must decide whether to place our very lives and civilization in the hands of the defeatist and dangerous leaders of the Democrat Party.

- FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Dr. Candace de Russy is a former college professor who was appointed by George W. Bush to serve on the Board of Visitors of the U.S. Air Force Academy from 2002-2005. She currently serves on many education-related boards, and is a nationally recognized writer and lecturer who contributes regularly to such publications as National Review Online.

Thoughts on 9/11, seven years later

Laina Farhat-Holzman

It has been seven years since America was attacked by a rag-tag group of Muslim thugs hunkering down in Afghanistan. We did what we always do in war – swinging from underestimating to overestimating an enemy. So how are we doing after this shock to our system – and how are al Qaeda, or other forces of militant Islam –faring?

We have not had another attack on us since that first, probably because we were now paying attention, and probably because al Qaeda could only execute such a complex attack one time. They have since found easier and softer targets –Spanish railways, an Indonesian nightclub, and London’s metro system.

In Europe, police and security forces have apprehended many terrorists before they could deploy. The European courts, however, have opted for political correctness and some have released these terrorists as “freedom fighters.” But increasing public hostility toward what may be an internal fifth column is bringing about some tightened security.

Meanwhile, al Qaeda, under increasing pursuit, has birthed wholly-owned subsidiaries around the world. The danger for American Muslims will come if sleeper cell agents are deployed for suicide missions. All Muslims living in America would be then eyed with suspicion.

- FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Dr. Laina Farhat-Holzman is an historian, lecturer, and author who also writes for the Santa Cruz Sentinel.

No Need to Apologize

Gabriel Garnica

As we approach another grim anniversary of 9/11, we face a unique intersection of the past and future for our country. Immediately after the tragic events of that day, we were given a healthy dose of the contrasting perceptions of Right and Left. The Right acted with anger, determination, resolve and dedication to protecting this great country. The Left, on the other hand, reacted with excuses, rationalizations, twisted tolerance, distorted compassion for our enemies and stubborn adherence to its confused and misguided loyalty to our foes over the very country that gives them the right to make fools of themselves on a regular basis.

When we look at the Iwo Jima monument, we see the unyielding resolve of a nation to survive and thrive through its principles and values grounded in freedom and faith, patriotism and pride and the bold refusal to apologize for its mission and purpose on this earth. When our opponents look at that same monument, they only see useless, tired, false and corny expressions of patriotism.

This is what the upcoming election is all about. Do we want to continue on a path of apology for the greatness and unique mission God has given this great land, where even the very essence of this country and the God that has so blessed it are denied? On the other hand, do we want to declare, loud and clear to all who hear and even those who refuse, that this country has no need to apologize, for it is and can continue to be the best thing that ever happened to this planet. The choice is up to us.

- FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Gabriel Garnica, Esq., is a college professor who holds a law degree from New York University.

9-11 and the Election

Joel Himelfarb

It is a testament to how short our collective memories are that this election is turning out as it is: For all his flaws, President Bush has worked tirelessly since September 11th to make sure that America is on the offensive against Jihadist terror. But despite all of his work in this regard, the president has become a political pariah. And the Democrat Party – which remains very much the party of George McGovern – is poised to benefit. In 2006, it skillfully played on angst about Katrina and the Iraq war to take control of Congress. During the past two years, its minions in Congress, including Barack Obama and Joe Biden, have voted at every turn against the war in Iraq. And they have been in the forefront of poor- mouthing the extraordinarily successful troop surge, which would probably never have happened if it were not for John McCain. In addition to undermining the war effort in Iraq, these two politicians have opposed sanctions on the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, spearhead of Tehran's terrorism efforts. They opposed legislation to ensure that American companies who helped the government eavesdrop on terrorists after September 11th are not subjected to frivolous lawsuits. And they fought to impose crippling restrictions that would make it impossible to use interrogation techniques that violate the Army Field Manual – which would be comforting to arch-terrorists like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, but extremely dangerous to American national security.

Yet the party of Obama and Biden is poised to make substantial gains in both Houses of Congress in November, and Obama and Biden have a very good chance of winning the White House – a bit better than 50-50, if you look at the state-by-state maps rather than the national poll numbers, which are marginally useful. Add to that Obama's extraordinary fundraising abilities and the general anti- Republican trend of the past few years, and things seem very bleak for the Republicans. But there are also important, countervailing factors that could give McCain a victory.

Republicans have won seven of the past 10 presidential elections, and there is no doubt in my mind that national security weakness is a large part of the reason why the Democrats have done so poorly. Reminding people of the links between Obama and Democrats past will be essential if McCain is to win the election. Look for 527 groups to remind people of the connection between Obama and Weatherman terrorist Bill Ayers in the coming weeks. A certain September 11, 2001 front-page article in the New York Times will likely be seared into public consciousness between now and Election Day.

- FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Joel Himelfarb is an editorial writer for The Washington Times. The views expressed here are his own.

Action – Not Talk – is the Order of the Day

M. Zuhdi Jasser

On this seventh anniversary of 9/11, and with only 54 days left in the election, this is the time that we should step back and reflect upon the real threats that face our nation today. Whether it’s on the front page or not, the fuel for Islamist inspired terrorism against our citizens and allies continue to grow. In many cases Islamism 1.0 is transforming into the more difficult to expose Islamism 2.0 often even condemning terrorism but holding a vastly different vision of society and government than one we are used to in the lap of liberty in America.

The only serious common element of most of our Islamist enemies is the ideology of political Islam and their desire to establish Islamic states. Just as the Muslim Brotherhood has executed its “Project” over the last century to spread Islamism and control society and government, anti-Islamist Muslims need to counter the MB Project with a more potent “counter-project” to bring the Muslim consciousness and the Muslim world into modernity and a comfort with liberal democracy.

On this seventh anniversary of 9/11, we all need to wake ourselves and our neighbors up to the tall order ahead. Instead of just talking and writing about the war of ideas that needs to happen in the future, we need to actively wage the war of ideas against Islamists domestically and globally today.

Until we do that, 9/11 anniversaries will continue to pass and we will lose more and more ground as we blindly head down our current path. It is time for a change of course down a path which more openly engages and ideological combats Islamists who have already heavily penetrated the West and are moving to gain control in Muslim majority lands.

- FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor M. Zuhdi Jasser is the founder and Chairman of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy based in Phoenix Arizona. He is a former U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander, a physician in private practice, and a community activist.

How Hard is Our Government Working to Protect Us?

Ruth S. King

In the aftermath of 9/11 President Bush and many members of Congress shepherded, reassured and consoled our nation. Despite the requisite reassurances that Islam was a "religion of peace" which was "hijacked" by a tiny minority, the blame and responsibility for the disaster was directed toward Muslim terrorists and the Muslim nations that trained and abetted them.

Then Attorney General John Ashcroft crafted and promoted the Patriot Act, legitimating surveillance and "profiling" and our intelligence and law enforcement agencies were successful in detecting and deterring major terrorist activity, while demonstrating utmost consideration for the privacy and civil rights of all Americans.

Unfortunately, our President, our State and Defense Departments, and Congress have now capitulated to political correctness, virtually censored use of the words Islamic terror or Jihad, and continued craven appeasement of Saudi Arabia, the locus of training and funding for the 9/11 terrorists.

Seven years after 9/11, enemies have used oil revenues to establish mosques and schools which preach and teach Jihad; they have “bought” history and Middle East departments in major universities; they have funded representative organizations in the United States which continue to ratchet up demands for more participation and control of our national institutions, and our economy and energy are still hostage to their price manipulations.

Which Presidential candidate will halt this slide to appeasement and apathy? It is pretty obvious to me that McCain is the one.

- FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Ruth S. King is a freelance writer who writes a monthly column in OUTPOST, the publication of Americans for a Safe Israel.

The 9/11 Attacks: First Responders Seven Years Later

Jim Kouri, CPP

As the nation remembers the shock and horror of the 9/11 terrorist attacks seven years ago, one sore point that continues to fester is the lack of training for local first responders especially in suburban and rural areas of the country.

In a survey of police commanders and sheriffs across the nation, the National Association of Chiefs of Police discovered that 70% of the survey respondents said they received federal training to meet the increased threat of terrorism. That's the good news.

The bad news is that only 50% of these respondents said their departments participated in any state or local terrorism response simulation. This leaves many police chiefs concerned.

Off the record, several police commanders claim the fault lies not as much with the federal government as it does with the state and local political leaders.

"I know our state got some of the homeland security grant money, but what it's been spent on? I have no idea, "says one police chief who spoke on condition of anonymity. He went on to say that he's seen little difference in his department since September 11, 2001.

A police commander in New Jersey was even harsher in his assessment. He claims that New Jersey received millions of dollars from the federal government, yet, with the exception of the state police, he's seen limited resources in his jurisdiction. The disheartened chief believes New Jersey didn't take homeland security seriously.

He points to a scandal in which the (former) governor of New Jersey appointed his alleged male lover to the position of State Homeland Security Director. The SHS director had absolutely no law enforcement or firefighting experience and no command experience. It appeared Homeland Security Director was one of the patronage positions many local politicians have to reward friends, relatives and intimates.

Unfortunately, because of political harping by Liberals that the federal government isn't giving enough money to state governments – especially by the likes of Senators Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer – more is being done to distribute money without providing federal oversight on how the money is spent.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, for instance, it was discovered federal money may have been misappropriated by Louisiana officials to buy an airplane, open a casino, purchase fur coats, etc. An investigation failed to reveal the nature of this misappropriation of funds.

When a large group of police commanders and officers wished to travel to Israel to study their counterterrorism and response techniques, they were told their local agencies wouldn't pay for the training, transportation and housing. Many of these police officers paid for the program out of their own pockets rather than play the political games.

One cop said his city's mayor did not wish his police department to be identified with Israel. The Liberal mayor is said to have supported measures to coerce Israel into appeasing the Palestinians.

The bottom line appears to be simple: a more active role on the part of the feds to oversee training and expenditures when it comes to federal cash being used by local politicians.

- FamilySecurityMatters.org Jim Kouri, CPP is currently fifth vice-president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police and he's a staff writer for the New Media Alliance (thenma.org). In addition, he's the new editor for the House Conservatives Fund's weblog. Kouri also serves as political advisor for Emmy and Golden Globe winning actor Michael Moriarty.

National Security: Our Top Priority

Rita Kramer

There is really only one overriding consideration in this election: national security. Threatened as never before possible, our culture, our institutions and our ideals – in fact our very existence – depend on a leadership that understands the nature of the threat from Islamic Jihadism and is prepared to defend us. All other considerations – economic, political and social – are secondary. What will jobs, home mortgages, energy policy or any aspect of daily life matter if we are overtaken by the actions and attitudes creeping through Europe and even Canada, threatening our values of free speech, religious freedom, and equality before the law?

The idea of Barack Obama as commander in chief of our armed forces is ludicrous. The emerging facts about his radical background and associations only add to his lack of significant experience in any field except self-promotion. The prospect of a man of proven character like John McCain and a woman of parts like Sarah Palin in the White House is the only encouraging prospect for the pursuit of our interests at home and abroad. The empty talk about “hope” and “change” from the Democrat Party needs to be measured against policies that offer hope for our safety and change from pandering to the interests of tyrants and thugs abroad.

- FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Rita Kramer is an author and freelance writer. She has written for the New York Times Magazine, the Wall Street Journal, Partisan Review, Commentary, City Journal, and numerous other publications in the U.S. and abroad. Her books include Maria Montessori: A Biography, In Defense of the Family: Raising Children in America. Today, At ATender Age: Violent Youth and Juvenile Justice, and Ed School Follies:The Miseducation of America's Teachers.

Never Forget

Pam Meister

Seven years ago, Americans reacted with horror and sorrow to the news that Islamists flew hijacked planes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania. Today, it is becoming increasingly taboo to reference the events of that terrible day when discussing national security issues. Is it because our PC sensibilities forbid us from mentioning radical Islamists in the same breath as terrorism? Is it because it seems as though we are “capitalizing” on the misfortune and misery of others in order to prevail politically? Or is it because we’d rather just move on, enjoying life and putting the unhappy past behind us?

Whatever the reason, it’s a shame.

9/11 was a watershed moment. The Islamist attacks against Americans at home and abroad of the previous years should have alerted us to the danger of Jihad, but instead were treated as mere law enforcement annoyances. Fine, lesson learned – a painful one. But what happened on 9/11 should burn in our collective soul and provide a rallying point as we move forward in the fight against global Jihad.

“Remember the Alamo!” cried Texans during the Battle of San Jacinto. Why aren’t Americans crying “Remember 9/11!”? It isn’t ghoulish to take this defining moment in American history when a very real threat to our way of life continues to rear its ugly head. Our enemies are still out there, plotting and planning, taking the easygoing nature of Americans as their cue to continue their deadly work.

Remember 9/11 by going to a memorial service or remember it quietly in your own way. How you remember is up to you. But please, don’t forget.

-Pam Meister is the editor for FamilySecurityMatters.org

Will Multiculturalism be the Death of America?

Joan Harrold Messner

The tragedy of 9/11 will be with us always and has, at least, reaffirmed our commitment to our country, America. I see that commitment lacking in the huge Mexican/Central American block of new immigrants, particularly illegal immigrants, who by their very presence, admit their disdain for America and its rules. Before the end of the last century, the Hispanic immigrants I met were sincere in their desire to assimilate into this country and be guided by its laws. Why has that changed? Why is the change so drastic?

This indifference, even disdain, for America and its laws could be our country’s downfall. First, let me put straight anyone who tries to paint me with a broad sweep of the “bigot” brush. I hate or dislike NO group.

That some practices or habits are not part of my construct is not my doing nor, if I object or disagree, do I deserve the appellation of “racist.” If television can be believed, some Hispanic politician in Santa Ana wanted all classes in Santa Ana schools to be taught in Spanish! This is inconceivable to me. Not only would this plan be detrimental to the future of the children involved, it is detrimental to America.

What has deluded these new immigrants into thinking that America’s citizens and taxpayers would sit still for this disrespect? To a large extent the liberal media bear responsibility. These politically correct writers are really quick to pull out the “bigot” brush if anyone stands up for American values. The concept of multiculturalism is a death blow to American values. WE HAVE A CULTURE and it must be a damn good one because everyone wants to come here. The struggle to design our culture began with the first settlers and followed the suffragettes into brutal imprisonment in 1917 when they struggled for women’s right to vote.

For generations Americans have fought to protect all children here from any form of abuse, to protect women from exploitation, rape and other violent acts. If immigrants want to come here, they have to commit to our culture, they must get on line like everyone else, they must pay taxes, they must uphold the rules which protect men and women and children. THEY MUST PARTICIPATE.

It is only by participating in our culture and committing to its guiding principals and societal standards that immigrants will grow to feel America in their hearts and will feel our devastation t the loss of our people, and the pain of their families, which occurred on 9/11. Then they too will be alert to the threats to the American way of life and be vigilant to assure that 9/11 never happens again.

- FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Joan Harrold Messner is Vice President of the Board of Directors of the Coalition for a Secure Driver’s License and Director of Development for the Met Opera Auditions Program.

The Presidential Election: Have We Learned from 9/11?

Tom Ordeman, Jr.

Americans experienced the current scourge of terrorism for the first time in 1979, when more than 50 American diplomats were taken hostage in Iran. Since then, Americans have suffered these outrages in a handful of now-infamous cities: Beirut, Lockerbie, West Berlin, New York, Nairobi, Dar es Salaam, Aden, Washington, and others. As Americans observe the seventh anniversary of the worst of these terrorist attacks, they simultaneously prepare to elect the first executive successor since the tragedy of 2001. The two candidates hold diametrically opposed views on how to safeguard America and American interests against challenging foreign and domestic threats. Through five successive American presidencies, the American people have seen several strategies against terrorism, and only one of them has succeeded. The citizens of the United States, and international observers, have learned what happens when security is treated as a political issue, and what happens when security is addressed without concern for political fallout. As Americans prepare to vote, the world must hope that they have learned to support the only strategy that has proven truly effective in combating this dire threat. If Americans have failed to learn this lesson, the near future could prove even more challenging than the near past.

- FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Tom Ordeman, Jr. is a technical writer for a major defense contractor in Hampton Roads, Virginia.

9/11 Anniversary Observation for Family Security Matters

Frank Salvato

As we observe the seventh anniversary of the attacks of September 11th, 2001, there will be many who tout the successes the United States has achieved in the “war on terror.” True, our brave men and women of the military and intelligence communities have achieved much and, whether some political opportunists in Washington want to admit it or not, their actions and their sacrifices have made our country and her citizens safer. But on this anniversary we – as a nation – have not had the courage to face the raw truth of the matter. We are not engaged in individual military conflicts throughout the Middle East. We are engaged in a life or death struggle with those who adhere to a viciously totalitarian ideology and who intend to win at all cost; their victory constituting control of the world.

While our military is incapable of losing on the battlefield, we cannot say as much for our culture. Those who have imposed political correctness upon our society have hobbled our ability to honestly and frankly confront those who quest to replace our Constitutional Republic with a totalitarian theocracy that rules by Sharia Law. At the same time, organizations such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations – to name but one, who advocate for radical Islam as if it were a K Street special interest group, craftily manipulate our system of government and our courts of law to advance the advancing cancer that is the Wahhabist ideology.

From Dearborn, Michigan to Herndon, Virginia, Brooklyn, New York to Tampa Florida, all across our country Saudi funded mosques and Islamic Centers are being established, complete with imams and clerics vetted by the Muslim Brotherhood and Wahhabist literature. Dearborn and Brooklyn resemble the mean streets of Lahore more than they do American cities. And still, the moral relativists, those who advocate for multiculturalism and diversity, those who promote the Marxist-Leninist tenets of political correctness, still they call for tolerance, even as honor killings among the Islamic fundamentalist communities in the United States become more frequent.

This year, on the seventh anniversary of the attacks of September 11th, 2001, it is imperative that we dedicate ourselves to the usurpation of political correctness in the quest for total and unequivocal victory over the violent, totalitarian aggression of radical Islam. If we, the American people, don’t champion this fight – every man woman and child – we could very well lose this conflict. This is a fact...and it is indisputable.

- FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Frank Salvato is the managing editor for The New Media Journal. He serves at the Executive Director of the Basics Project, a non-profit, non-partisan, 501(C)(3) research and education initiative.

Country First

Nancy Salvato

I discovered a Koran hanging on my front door. Not entirely unexpected, I’d heard KOrans were distributed in some Church rich communities in the western suburbs of Chicago, I found it troubling. As Robert Spencer explains in Osama’s Challenge,

“In traditional Islamic law, the invitation to Islam must precede an attack on non-Muslims. The Islamic prophet Muhammad makes this clear, directing Muslims to issue this invitation first, and if the unbelievers refuse, to invite them to enter the Islamic social order as second-class dhimmis, and if they refuse both, to go to war with them.”

To anyone who has tried to understand the motivation behind those who would indiscriminately kill thousands of people who had the bad luck of flying on one of the hijacked planes, or working at the World Trade Center or Pentagon, it’s obvious my community received an invitation to Islam.

Although I haven’t felt entirely safe since 9/11, I don’t obsess that today a dirty bomb will explode in the United States or that an EMP will detonate in our hemisphere. Thankfully, bin Laden hasn’t succeeded in making U.S. citizens look over our shoulders or jump at the slightest provocation. For this, I credit President Bush.

Our 44th president will either be a patriot who spent 5½ years at the Hanoi Hilton for placing country first or a Saul Alinsky community organizer who is soft on terror and would likely sway Conservative Muslim populations “to join the cause against the "Great Satan" if their imams and mullahs shout that it is led by an apostate.” My vote will place country first.

Nancy Salvato is the President and Director of Education and the Constitutional Literacy Program for Basics Project, a non-profit, non-partisan 501 (C) (3) research and educational project whose mission is to re-introduce the American public to the basic elements of our constitutional heritage while providing non-partisan, fact-based information on relevant socio-political issues important to our country, specifically the threats of aggressive Islamofascism and the American Fifth Column. She serves as a Senior Editor for The New Media Journal. She is also a staff writer, for the New Media Alliance, Inc., a non-profit (501c3) coalition of writers and grass-roots media outlets.

9/11 Reflection: Seven Years On

Jonathan Strong

The attacks of September 11, 2001 are a historical memory now. The haunting feelings of whether another attack was imminent, whether the anthrax was linked, whether there was more to come have now faded. Rarely do we see pictures or video clips of the attacks on the news anymore. And yet, we are still in the midst of war. There are approximately 53,000 coalition troops fighting in Afghanistan and over 140,000 in Iraq. Almost 50 million people in Iraq and Afghanistan now elect their government leaders who previously lived under tyranny.

Our casualties have been low by comparison to the Second World War, Vietnam, and Korea, but they have been higher than Kosovo, the Gulf War, and the Bosnian conflict. Outside of military families, few have had to sacrifice anything for the war effort; this is a stark contrast to the mandatory draft, food rationing, and total industrial re-tooling of WWII that effected the entire population.

Are we safer? We have not been attacked since. Are we again complacent to the threat of Islamic fascism that still exists? Perhaps. What the general population does not seem to grasp is that this conflict will be an ideological struggle that will last for a generation much like that of Communism vs. Liberal Democracy.

Alexis de Tocqueville said, “When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness.” Let us hope we are not walking in darkness.

- FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Jonathan D. Strong graduated from the Michigan State University College of Law. He is a member of the Florida bar and currently resides in a suburb of Toronto, Ontario

Forewarned is Forearmed

Joan Swirsky

By September 10, 2001 – in spite of numerous foreign conflicts in which America had been engaged – I had lived an entire and very privileged life in a country that had kept me and my loved ones safe, secure, and free of even the remote possibility of an attack on our shores.

The next morning, the myth of America’s invulnerability was shattered. On that fateful day, only 20 minutes from my home, terrorist-commandeered commercial airplanes plowed into the World Trade Center towers, bringing down two powerful symbols of our nation’s immense success, and savagely murdering nearly 3,000 innocent people. In the next hour, the terrorists’ killing spree would spread to the Pentagon in D.C. and to a remote field in Pennsylvania.

Today, on the seventh anniversary of the worst attack against our country in American history, I find myself reflecting on America’s divinely ordained Manifest Destiny, which included not only the inevitability of our country expanding from east to west but to the concept of American exceptionalism.

It was part of America’s destiny, I believe, to be blessed with a president, George W. Bush, who appreciated that the efforts of those who preceded him to stem the rising tide of Islamic Jihadism were catastrophically ineffectual.

In the greatest of American traditions, President Bush fought back! In effect, he told our enemies that if they dared to attack us again, the consequences would be draconian. Clearly, they took him seriously.

The 2008 presidential election is less than two months away. While economic and social issues are important, the most crucial lesson we learned from 9/11 is that nothing is more urgent than national security.

In this perilous age, we must elect a president who, like Sen. John McCain, recognizes and is equipped to deal with the looming Islamic Jihadist threat that is proliferating apace, including in our own country. To do otherwise is to invite another September 11th disaster – or horrifyingly worse.

- FamilySecurityMatters.org contributing editor Joan Swirsky has been a longtime health-and-science and feature writer for The New York Times Long Island section and the recipient of seven Long Island Press Awards. She was also the editor of The Caucus Current, a monthly magazine on Jewish political issues, for 15 years.

9/11 Reflections

George Weissinger, Ph.D.

When I began my career as a criminal investigator in the INS New York District Office, we worked out of 20 West Broadway, which sat in the shadow of the World Trade Center. I remember sitting in a classroom on the top floor near the small detention area taking the oath of office with about 40 other officers. We were excited about wanting to do a good job enforcing the immigration laws inside the United States and looked forward to working for the INS. At the time President Nixon was the CIC, and US Marine Corps General Chapman was the Commissioner. For a brief period, we were able to do our jobs. In 1977, President Carter took office and the INS began a spiral downward. We soon found out that our agency would not support us, and actually went out of its way to make life as difficult as it could, especially for interior enforcement efforts. At the behest of those who ran the agency, management enforced policies that were meant to prevent us from doing our jobs including such petty efforts to curtail use of government automobiles, ceasing operations during Census surveys, and detailing officers to perform service functions such as application backlogs. Morale plummeted and agents began transferring out of the INS as quickly as they could. This was not unintentional, and the restrictions had nothing to do with human rights, or constitutional safeguards. They were simply policies created through politicians that prevented the street agent from effectively locating and apprehending illegal aliens inside the US. Those in charge supported the notion that it was better to grant an alien permanent residence and citizenship than it is to deport an illegal alien. The dual mandate of service and enforcement began to shift significantly toward service. It is my opinion that had we been allowed to effectively do our jobs and enforce the immigration laws, the World Trade Center would still be standing. It only went from bad to worse and the last Commissioner of the INS was the individual in charge that allowed the visa applications of two 9/11 hijackers to be approved. For me, that said it all. I fully understood why the terrorists were able to succeed in destroying the World Trade Center and crashing into the Pentagon.

After 9/11, I was cautiously optimistic that something would be done to fix the immigration problem. After all, the hijackers were all aliens, and they were all in violation of the immigration laws. Even to the casual observer, it appeared that lax immigration policies contributed to the tragedy of 9/11. When I learned that a new agency was going to be created to effectively deal with this mess, I earnestly hoped that the dreams that I, and my brother officers had would come true. Unfortunately, it appears that we are nearly back to square one, and on the precipice of finding out whether a solution will be found. The fence is still not built. Border patrol agents are sent to prison for shooting drug dealing illegal aliens attempting to sneak into the United States, the mayors of some American cities are proclaiming sanctuary status for illegal aliens, and some even have the audacity to state that ICE agents are terrorizing communities. Things change, but everything remains the same.

- FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor George Weissinger, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Criminal Justice at a college on Long Island. He was a special agent with the INS (1974-1985), a special investigator with the FBI.

A British Soldier’s View

Tim Wilson

Having served over 30 years in the British Army, including multiple combat experiences, I know better than most how awful war is and how terrible the results of terrorism. I was proud to serve with my American allies on numerous occasions and know how patriotic, brave, capable and committed they are to the service of this great nation and to freedom everywhere. I am also proud to live here now, and am utterly devoted to this wonderful country.

Following the declaration of war on America by the evil forces of al Qaeda on 9/11, I have paid close attention to the worldwide fight by the U.S. against those vile murderers who conduct or support terrorist operations. I have seen amazing feats of bravery and determination by all involved in keeping us safe at home and abroad. Most importantly, the military snatched victory from the jaws of defeat in Iraq, the major battleground against the forces of evil. This was due in no small part to those who overcame the wave of defeatism which swept the country a while back, and whose faith in our military has now been amply justified.

Now change is coming with the election of a new President. I pray that the next Commander-in-Chief will be as successful in defending America as the current incumbent – that is something I do not want to change. Sen. John McCain has a proven track record as a fighting hero of this great nation and as a leader. Sen Barack Obama does not.

Rhetoric does not make a leader – actions do, and John McCain is the choice for me.

- FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Tim Wilson is a retired British Army officer who now works as an independent consultant.

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