It took the US over two years before going into the Second World War. The US was held back by German sympathizers in the US government, but when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt's Democratic Administration finally had an excuse to join Britain and France in the defense of Europe.
When the nineteen Arabs that attacked NYC and Washington DC on September 11, 2001, were identified by the FBI, the American people gradually learned that these men were born in Saudi Arabia and Egypt and were trained by the Islamic extremists operating in Afghanistan. It didn't take long for the US government to determine that an organization by the name of Al-Qaeda and its leader Osama Bin Laden were behind the plot.
The attack against the US on September Eleven was a strategy to draw the US into a direct confrontation over the issues of the Middle East. Today we don't know where this strategy was hatched and what it's ultimate goal is, but we do know this: we must not turn our back on our enemies and walk away.
While Osama Bin Laden was drawing attention to himself and invoking Islamic Jihad, Saddam Hussein was financing the attacks against Israel. The strategy of the Islamic extremists was to engage the US in a meaningless war in Afghanistan while concentrating all their efforts on the destruction of Israel.
This strategy would've worked if it weren't for the vigilance of the CIA and the Bush Republican Administration. An individual like Osama Bin Laden, with limited financial resources, couldn't take on a Super Power like the US. There had to be terrorist states involved in order to sustain the attack against the US, put the US and the United Nations in a negotiating mode, a strategy which would then free these states and allow them to develop their atomic weapons.
Sanctions would mean nothing to the dictatorships of these states. In fact, the leaders of these states would use these sanctions as a tool to infuriate their populations against the US, producing more suicide bombers to throw at the US and its allies.
By staying united and vigilant, the American people can minimize the attacks against the US and its economy and avoid an all out war like Vietnam. The Democrats will do nothing except for diplomatic efforts to reach peace. In the end a Democratic President will come along and use a nuclear weapon like Harry Truman did against Japan in 1945. The justification then was, "we can't let half a million American soldiers die to defeat Japan." In the final analysis, a Democratic president will be able to convince Congress and the American people to do the same against the Middle East.
Let us on this day recognize that the issue of 9-11 is too complex for partisan politics. Our enemies have a strategy aimed at annihilating us. We have to take a long and hard look at this issue.
May we all pray for the victims of Nine Eleven and their families.
-- September 11, 2006