Twenty-five years later, 9/11 still lingers in our nation’s memory, though not as strongly as it should.
9/11 was the third time our country sustained an attack from a foreign state on our soil. The others occurred during the War of 1812, with the British invading Washington, D.C., and torching the White House, and the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941.
The murder of 3,000 Americans still shocks, and yet it’s so easy to forget that horror. The passage of time is a distraction in itself, and the quiet confidence of restored order can give the public an unwarranted sense of complacency.
Also, a string of foreign and domestic policy victories can dull our commitment to remain vigilant. In 2026, the United States enjoys robust leadership that is putting America First and has made the defense of our homeland a priority so that a similar terrorist attack could never take place. President Trump has targeted Latin American drug cartels along the southern border. He is taking an aggressive stance against China’s predatory trade practices as well as the nation’s territorial aspirations. Trump’s welcome arrest of communist narco-dictator Nicolas Maduro and the realignment of Venezuela’s politics with American interests have been a boon for American safety and sovereignty.
Lastly, Trump’s necessary war with Iran is the culmination point of a clash of civilizations that exploded on our shores on September 11, 2001.
Al-Qaeda, one of many radical Islamic sects seeking our country’s destruction, succeeded in its long venture to cripple our country with a terrorist attack on that grim September morning. They did cripple us, but our nation fought back, attacking the Taliban in Afghanistan, then taking out Osama Bin Laden, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks a decade later.
Radical Islam will not rest until the United States — and the rest of the West — submits to Allah or is destroyed. We cannot let that happen. Radical Islam takes no prisoners, insisting on destroying all resistance to its megalomaniacal tyranny.
And that is the real danger: the rise of radical Islam in our nation, among our politicians, with a fawning media class and a clueless electorate unaware or unwilling to challenge its orthodoxy and extension.
In this regard, the United States has forgotten what we should have learned from that awful day.
With the rise of Islam, socialism, and antisemitism, all collectivist ideologies contrary to the core values and constitutional norms of our country, we have witnessed increased strife and division among our citizens. Al-Qaeda hoped to ignite this internal strife with the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the White House.
Thankfully, that effort failed at the time.
For at least a year after 9/11, the American people were united. The churches were filled with citizens praying for our country. Democrats as well as Republicans worked together to mourn for the country, demanding to know how the illegal alien hijackers, including VISA overstays, could remain in the country undetected and undisturbed, long enough to get flying lessons, explosives, and plane tickets without facing deportation.
The world was also united in grief over our terrible loss. From China’s head of state to the French newspaper Le Monde, which declared on its front page “We Are All Americans,” the world stood in solidarity with us. Even Muslim-majority countries like Azerbaijan condemned the attacks. Vladimir Putin was the first head of state to contact Bush and share condolences (even if he may not have meant them). Putin later paid his respects by visiting the memorial site two months after the attack.
Such comity and commiseration are unthinkable in our fractious world today.
Twenty-five years later, the New Yorkers elected a radical Muslim immigrant for mayor, who condemns America, who calls collectivism ‘warm,’ who attacks Israel with impunity over false charges of genocide, who refused to condemn Hamas; who, having signed an executive order commemorating 9/11, handed the pen to the former attorney for Al-Qaeda operatives; whose very presence would make a mockery of the victims and their families, hence those same families having signed a petition banning him from the memorial ceremony.
However, I can’t share in their sorrow too much, since the same voters elected Commie Muslim Mamdani as their mayor. There’s a price to pay for forgetting.
Is there a remedy?
Commemorating those losses, that tragic day is a starting point, but what do you do about an entire city that elects a man who spitefully dishonors the memory of those victims? What do you do when an entire political party (the Democrats) is siding with radical Islam, determined to cover up the crimes of evil doers while pretending to care about the past harms done to our country?
We have a choice, and we have a responsibility, not just to remember what happened, but to understand why it happened, and to remain vigilant so that the circumstances and plots which led to the horrid harms on our nation’s soil never happen again. Are Americans willing to meet that challenge?
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