Remembering September 11, 2001

Recalling back eleven years to 9-11, some reflection is in order.  On that day, I was in Washington DC on a business trip, staying at a hotel only six miles from the Pentagon.  The plane that hit the Pentagon that morning, AA Flight 77, flew over my hotel in Tysons Corner as I sat watching the news about the World Trade Center attacks.  The news reports that morning were reluctant to speculate about terrorism, at least initially.  When CNN speculated that the first plane striking the Twin Towers was "a small plane, likely a Cessna" I knew that wasn't so.  A mere 17 minutes later, when the second plane struck the Twin Towers, I called my wife Emily at home in Southern California and told her that America had suffered a military attack as serious as Pearl Harbor and to be prepared that day for what would unfold even in San Diego, 2,500 miles away.  [And, for those of you wondering, it took me four days to get home, early Saturday morning.  I didn't drive my rental car back home but caught a late flight out of Pittsburgh to Los Angeles.]

Many commentators have offered their perspective about how to remember this solemn event, and I want to provide mine as directly and honestly as I can.  That morning, America went to war, and we remain at war to this day.  The pace of the war has slackened somewhat given the military victory in Iraq and the execution of bin Laden, but let there be no mistake about it -- America remains at war. 

Does anyone doubt that if Al Qaeda had a suitcase nuke and could somehow, someway, get that nuke into the United States and set it off in a major metropolitan area, that would they would?  Ask that to your "progressive" friends.  Even the most hard partisans among them would say "no."  Our enemy is determined to wreak havoc on our nation and the appearance of peace means nothing.  They have a longer horizon than ours, and they do not elect Presidents every four years who have to pander to doves, peaceniks, and others who believe that if America was just nicer to our enemies, they would refrain from killing us.

As has been said many times, by others, we are safe in the USA only because there are men overseas who, each day, risk their lives and are willing to inflict extreme violence on our enemies to secure our safety. 

If you have any doubts about the evil of these enemies, read the article by a journalist who served in Iraq and cringe at the tactics these monsters use (quoted below):

 "... Jihadists not only beheaded civilians to send a message, they raped women to recruit them as suicide bombers, they shot babies in the face and passed around the pictures, they put bombs in backpacks and put the backpacks on handicapped kids because they knew our soldiers often went out of their way to help the handicapped, they rigged makeshift chlorine gas bombs, and they routinely tried the double suicide bombing (blow up a restaurant, then blow up the rescue workers)."

Admittedly, therefore, it bothers me to hear those on the left side of the political spectrum (here, here, and here) talk about cutting the defense budget or otherwise achieving military savings.  National defense is the first priority of the Federal Government, not healthcare or welfare, and those who say otherwise are either clueless, hopelessly partisan, and most assuredly are risking the safety of their fellow citizens.  The fact that our legislators made a deal to proceed with equal cuts to discretionary non-defense AND defense spending is a clear sign that 51% or more of our legislators are guilty of collective blindness.  In the meantime, the political appointees at the Pentagon waste DOD dollars on politically correct nonsense like buying Chevy Volts for the Pentagon fleet of cars.  [How low have we sunk when men in uniform drive around a military base in Chevy Volts rather than jeeps or humvees?]

So, if you want to remember 9-11 and:

• Honor the sacrifice made by innocent civilians who died in the Twin Towers;  
• Honor the sacrifice of firefighters and safety workers who rushed to their death carrying out their duty;
• Honor the deaths of soldierswho died while fighting determined enemies in Iraq and Afghanistan;
• Honor the special operations forces who have carried out countless secret and untold missions worldwide for the past 11 years;
• Honor the military men and women who have spent years on deployment overseas to keep radical Islam at bay.

Then do not let our politicians cut defense spending.  Do not go soft on military spending.  Do not fall for the fallacious reasoning that the world is now safer because bin Laden is dead and our troops are out of Iraq. 

Finally, I thought I'd bring a smile to your face with one of the many, many memorable moments from 9-11 and its aftermath.

P.S.:  many readers may not know about one of the greatest yet unknown stories of 9-11, the story of the boatlift.  Boat owners of all stripes moved more people off the island of Manhattan in eight hours (500,000) than were moved during the evacuation of Dunkirk (320,000) in World War II.  Watch and weep. 

A Real Domestic Threat: How Health-Care Spending Strains the U.S. Military

The title of this post is taken from the Atlantic Monthly article of the same name (Atlantic Monthly, March 12, 2012, link here), any my reason for commenting is to provide a perspective, and a warning, about a subject I blogged about over two years ago.

Early in the Obama Administration, when it was clear that the newly-elected President and the Congressional leadership were hell-bent on passing healthcare reform, I warned in a previous post on this blog that American leadership in space would suffer once healthcare became a huge new entitlement or was otherwise nationalized.  Now we see this prediction coming true as regards defense.  Not only are military health costs consuming a large percentage of the DOD budget ($52 billion for the Military Health service plus $51 billion for Veterans Affairs healthcare), but the rapid increases in other healthcare expenses ($970 billion annually for Medicare and Medicaid) are making healthcare a vastly more expensive ticket than nation defense $559 billion).  It also provides a marker as to the nation's priorities.

No doubt that many Democrats think this prioritization is correct -- de-emphasize the military, and take care of citizens.  But this is an important debate that needs to take place during the election season.  It is clear to his author, at least, that the primary function of the Federal Government is national defense.  Yet, if current trends continue, we will find ourselves, as a nation, consigned to being a former, not a current superpower.