My Sept 11 Memory
It was 18 days before I was scheduled to return to the United States. I was stationed at Kunsan AB, Republic of Korea. I had just returned from watching Monday night football at the NCO club. They show the football games tape delayed by about 15 hours. When I got back to my dormitory, I turned on the TV and saw the first World Trade Center Tower on fire. I heard the commentator say that a plane had just hit the building. Then as I watched, I saw a shadow of an airplane slam into the second tower. A huge fireball and a ton of burning debris fell to the ground. I immediately called my boss and told him about the terrorist attack.
We weren’t the only ones to see the disaster live on base that night. Within minutes, the command post closed the base and took us to our highest level of alert. We watched transfixed even though we knew that the next day would be very long, busy, and tiring. Then the first tower fell. The commentators said that there could be as many as 16,000 people in there. I suddenly needed to wretch. I spent the rest of the night in prayer. I watched in horror as the second tower crashed to the ground. I heard that a plane had crashed into the Pentagon. There was a rumor that another plane had crashed in a Pennsylvania field. Separated from my family for 12 months and 3000 miles, I cried myself to sleep that night.
The next day, sadness turned to anger and then rage as it became apparent that Islamists had committed an act of war against our country. We still had a lot of questions but one thing was clear, we were never going to be the same again.
In the five years since, I still can’t think about that day without getting that sick feeling in my stomach. We’ve learned that Afghanistan provided safe haven for the terrorists to train and we removed that government from power. We discovered that Sadaam Hussein brought terrorists in and trained them at Salman Pak to hijack airplanes. We removed him from power, killed his sons, and he is now on trial for crimes against humanity. In the course of securing the peace in Iraq, we have managed to draw the majority of the terrorists who want to kill is into the region and we are killing them daily, before they can kill us.
We have captured or killed most of the terror groups’ leadership, including the self-proclaimed second in command, Zarqawi. And yet the struggle continues. Political forces seeking to fill the void in Iraq, have used terrorists and terror tactics in an attempt to seize power and intimidate the citizenry. The Taliban has reasserted itself with guerilla warfare in Afghanistan. There are still arrests being made around the globe of Islamists who seek to enforce their religion on the world.
Make no mistake. This is a religious war. An unholy war, but a religious war nonetheless. The Islamists are seeking to fulfill their Koranic duty to kill all infidels. They define infidels as any Jew or Christian, or any other person who refuses to convert to their hate filled, murderous, perverted religion. They seek to suppress women’s rights and make them little more than property. They hate their own lives so much that they are willing to murder their own children by placing explosives in their baby bottles to kill infidels. They do all of this for the perverted promise of eternal sex with 72 concubines.
They hate America. The Islamists see America as the symbol of worldwide Christianity and a proxy for Judaism. We represent everything they loathe. Their religion is the antithesis of Christianity. Their Allah is a god of hate. Our God, Yahweh, is the God of love. Their god commands them to kill; our God says that He loved the world so much that he sent His Son to pay the price for our admission to eternity. Their god treats women as little more than animals. The Lord God says that we are to love our wives and give ourselves up for them even as Christ gave himself up for the church. Their promise is of 72 virgins in the afterlife (what happens after the 72nd one? Are they done with sex? Do they now have to spend eternity with 72 whores?). Our promise is eternity spent worshipping the one true God, in a place that he has prepared just for us. Choose for yourself whom you will serve. As for me, and my household, we will serve the Lord.
A political solution will never solve this problem. At the same time, we cannot falter or waver in our struggle against this enemy who has sworn our destruction. The only way to achieve peace is through the annihilation of those who seek to kill us. We cannot take for granted any longer that our lives will be lived without conflict. We must continue this struggle with every last bit of devotion until we eradicate this blight from the face of the earth or until Messiah comes to reign in glory.
May the Lord of Heaven and Earth have mercy on the souls of those who have died at the hands of these Cretans. May He bless the families and comfort those who have lost loved ones. May He bless the United States of America.
We weren’t the only ones to see the disaster live on base that night. Within minutes, the command post closed the base and took us to our highest level of alert. We watched transfixed even though we knew that the next day would be very long, busy, and tiring. Then the first tower fell. The commentators said that there could be as many as 16,000 people in there. I suddenly needed to wretch. I spent the rest of the night in prayer. I watched in horror as the second tower crashed to the ground. I heard that a plane had crashed into the Pentagon. There was a rumor that another plane had crashed in a Pennsylvania field. Separated from my family for 12 months and 3000 miles, I cried myself to sleep that night.
The next day, sadness turned to anger and then rage as it became apparent that Islamists had committed an act of war against our country. We still had a lot of questions but one thing was clear, we were never going to be the same again.
In the five years since, I still can’t think about that day without getting that sick feeling in my stomach. We’ve learned that Afghanistan provided safe haven for the terrorists to train and we removed that government from power. We discovered that Sadaam Hussein brought terrorists in and trained them at Salman Pak to hijack airplanes. We removed him from power, killed his sons, and he is now on trial for crimes against humanity. In the course of securing the peace in Iraq, we have managed to draw the majority of the terrorists who want to kill is into the region and we are killing them daily, before they can kill us.
We have captured or killed most of the terror groups’ leadership, including the self-proclaimed second in command, Zarqawi. And yet the struggle continues. Political forces seeking to fill the void in Iraq, have used terrorists and terror tactics in an attempt to seize power and intimidate the citizenry. The Taliban has reasserted itself with guerilla warfare in Afghanistan. There are still arrests being made around the globe of Islamists who seek to enforce their religion on the world.
Make no mistake. This is a religious war. An unholy war, but a religious war nonetheless. The Islamists are seeking to fulfill their Koranic duty to kill all infidels. They define infidels as any Jew or Christian, or any other person who refuses to convert to their hate filled, murderous, perverted religion. They seek to suppress women’s rights and make them little more than property. They hate their own lives so much that they are willing to murder their own children by placing explosives in their baby bottles to kill infidels. They do all of this for the perverted promise of eternal sex with 72 concubines.
They hate America. The Islamists see America as the symbol of worldwide Christianity and a proxy for Judaism. We represent everything they loathe. Their religion is the antithesis of Christianity. Their Allah is a god of hate. Our God, Yahweh, is the God of love. Their god commands them to kill; our God says that He loved the world so much that he sent His Son to pay the price for our admission to eternity. Their god treats women as little more than animals. The Lord God says that we are to love our wives and give ourselves up for them even as Christ gave himself up for the church. Their promise is of 72 virgins in the afterlife (what happens after the 72nd one? Are they done with sex? Do they now have to spend eternity with 72 whores?). Our promise is eternity spent worshipping the one true God, in a place that he has prepared just for us. Choose for yourself whom you will serve. As for me, and my household, we will serve the Lord.
A political solution will never solve this problem. At the same time, we cannot falter or waver in our struggle against this enemy who has sworn our destruction. The only way to achieve peace is through the annihilation of those who seek to kill us. We cannot take for granted any longer that our lives will be lived without conflict. We must continue this struggle with every last bit of devotion until we eradicate this blight from the face of the earth or until Messiah comes to reign in glory.
May the Lord of Heaven and Earth have mercy on the souls of those who have died at the hands of these Cretans. May He bless the families and comfort those who have lost loved ones. May He bless the United States of America.
Labels: Patriots and Heroes
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