This week we’ll observe the 24th anniversary of the attack by 19 al-Qaida terrorists, who hijacked four commercial jetliners and directed them at American targets.
They flew the first two aircraft into the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers in New York City, and both buildings collapsed within two hours, taking everyone inside with them.
The third aircraft crashed into the Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia.
The fourth plane, believed to have targeted either the White House or the U.S. Capitol Building, crashed in a rural Pennsylvania field when passengers revolted after realizing what was happening.
Three days after the attack, then-President George W. Bush mounted a pile of rubble that had once been one of New York’s Twin Towers, draped an arm on the shoulder of a New York City firefighter, and delivered what became known as his “bullhorn speech.”
“I can hear you,” he told the cheering crowd through the bullhorn. “I can hear you, the rest of the world hears you, and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon!”
We promised one another that we would never forget that day and the 2,977 victims killed. One generation later it’s as though Sept. 11 never happened.
We can go to nearly any college campus in the United States and find more Palestinian flags than American flags.
In Michigan, the Dearborn Heights Police Department unveiled a new police patch that’s a first in the country. It features both English and Arabic letters, meant “to honor and reflect the city’s large Middle Eastern and North African population.”
Designed by a city police officer, it’s currently optional, but in the future, who knows? It could be mandatory.
Then there’s EPIC City down in Texas, a 400-acre planned Islamic community near Dallas. It would include 1,000 homes, a K-12 faith-based school, apartments, shops, a community college and a mosque. It would reportedly be run according to Sharia law.
Texas State Land Commissioner Dr. Dawn Buckingham told Newsmax that anything based on Sharia law would be a non-starter for the Lone Star State.
“We have multiple agencies looking at it, but the real concern is that Sharia law is not acceptable in Texas or anywhere else in America,” he said. “Our American Constitution laws are the ones that we follow.”
Texas Muslims are now trying to outlaw gambling, and ban pork and alcohol in the state, while the national Muslim community’s growth is becoming a matter of concern.
The U.S. Muslim population is about the size of the Hispanic population 27 years ago, about five million. However, thanks to high birth rates and immigration, it’s growing six times faster than the national rate.
And Islamization has especially taken hold internationally.
Many U.S. allies, including Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, and the United Kingdom, have indicated that they intend to recognize full Palestinian statehood at the annual UN General Assembly scheduled later this month.
“Palestine” consists of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
As one of five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, the United States has the power to veto Palestine’s application, as we most certainly will this year.
Palestinian terrorists kidnapped and murdered 11 Israelis athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. While that was 53 years ago, Gaza’s Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack on Israel’s civilian population shows they haven’t changed.
We promised ourselves that the events of 9/11 would always be etched in our memory. Who can forget the vision of victims leaping from the upper floors of the World Trade Center, preferring to fall to their death rather than being burned alive inside.
And there was Todd Beamer, a passenger onboard United Flight 93 from Newark to San Francisco, when it was hijacked by terrorists..
Beamer organized a party to assault the terrorists in the flight deck. When they were assembled he could be heard from another passenger’s phone call, “You ready? Let’s roll!” Their valor more-than-likely saved the U.S. Capitol Building.
Then there was firefighter Stephen Siller, who’d just finished his shift at Brooklyn Squad 1 when he heard about the assault on the Twin Towers. He went back to the station and grabbed his gear to lend his support, but was stopped at the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel entrance. Undaunted, he threw his 60 pounds of gear on his back, ran through the tunnel, then on to the towers on foot, where he met his death.
These and other visions and events both saddened and inspired us — but more than anything they made us resolute. We were determined to never let this happen again — to never forget the stories, the victims, and the heroes of 9/11.
And if we don’t continue remembering, we may lose something especially precious — our American way of life.
Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and is a frequent contributor to Newsmax. He’s also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and a Second Amendment supporter. Read Michael Dorstewitz’s Reports — More Here.
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