Never Forget . . . Never Forgive

Video compliments of KG at Crusader Rabbit

It has been seven years since a terrorist attack on our soil that took the lives of 2,998 civilians. Osama bin Laden justified this cowardly attack on the dogma of Salafi Islam. Bin Laden believed, based on his understanding of the history of the United States from days of Vietnam though the Clinton years, that any U.S. response to these attacks would be ineffectual. He expected the U.S. to exact retribution against Muslim Americans, inflaming Muslim sentiments world-wide. He could not have been more wrong on both points.

Seven years later, bin Laden and his second in command, Zawahiri, preside over a greatly weakened movement from their foxholes dug in the backwaters of Pakistan. They were driven from Afghanistan before 2001 drew to a close. They tried to ignite civil war in Iraq and drive America from that country. They would have won had those in our country who placed partisan interests over national security had their way. They did not - but we should not forget who these people were, nor forgive their perfidy.

Thanks to George Bush, American soldiers were given a new mission. Well led, they executed with a precision that should make all Americans proud and all of our enemies shudder. Al Qaeda's dreams of a caliphate suffered fatal blows in Iraq when they were decimated by our soldiers in the "surge" and rejected by the very Sunni Muslims they hoped to rule. The ramifications of the performance of our soldiers, the failure of Allah to grant al Qaeda victory over the infidel, and the rejection of al Qaeda by the Sunnis in Iraq have been and will continue to be far reaching.

Al Qaeda is down but not dead. They still hold on in the hinterlands of Pakistan and are weaved into the incredibly troubled politics of that country. They still seek to carry out attacks on the west and they still seek WMD. Should we act foolishly in the Middle East, al Qaeda can arise again. They must not be allowed that opportunity.

We must never forget al Qaeda's cowardly attack upon defenseless civilians. We must never forget that their goal is the destruction of our society. We must never forget that their goal is to impose their 7th Century version of Islam upon each and every person on this earth. We must never forget that they have no moral restraints. We must never forgive them for their brutal attacks and the massive death and mayhem they have wrought. We must not rest until the scourge of radical Islam is destroyed in all its facets.