Bumped for September 11...This coming Tuesday is September 11, 2007 – the sixth anniversary of the awful day when 2,996 Americans died during the despicable terrorist attacks by Bin Laden's al Qaida organization. In those six years the Bush administration has prosecuted the global war on terror, targeting not only al Qaida, but also other terrorist organizations and those countries that support or harbor them. There are many legitimate criticisms that can be raised about exactly how that war has been prosecuted. But despite those criticisms it is nevertheless still true that America has not suffered another such attack in all those six years – an accomplishment that Bush's opponents and detractors are eager to belittle, but which I am most grateful and thankful for.
There are also some disappointments, including the mainly symbolic and emotional disappointment that we have not yet managed to capture (or better yet, to kill) Osama Bin Laden himself. We have bled his organization until it is a mere shadow of its former self, but we not yet wiped out the root of that evil. Pragmatically I think this matters little – but it certainly would feel good to know that evil bastard was dead. Preferably painfully dead.
In any case, the anniversary of such an important event is a good excuse to pause, remember, and ponder. In that spirit, I offer you two links. First, a tribute page for Nicolas P. Rossomando – a brave member of the New York Fire Department who lost his life on 9/11 while rescuing innocents from the carnage at the World Trade Center. Second is a collection of photos from around the world, taken in the days immediately following 9/11, when for a brief time it seemed that the entire world shared the pain, grief, and anger of America. Note that there are multiple slides (pages) of these photos; use the links near the top of each page to navigate between them.
