Daily Ramblings:
Where Teardrops Fall ...02/26/2005 01:09:15 pm
Today is the twelfth anniversary of the 1993 attack by Islamofascist terrorists on New York's World Trade Center. Six people were killed, and more than a thousand injured. The terrorists neverthelesss failed in their plan to cause the bombed tower to topple, which would have killed untold thousands.
New York's governor Mario Cuomo reacted: "We all have that feeling of being violated. No foreign people or force has ever done this to us. Until now we were invulnerable." A few days later, President Clinton visited New Jersey. The FBI and other international law enforcement agencies pursued the individuals involved in the bombing. Several individuals were arrested, were afforded full rights under the U.S. legal system, and were tried, convicted of various charges, and sentenced to jail terms.
In October of 1993, 18 U.S. soldiers were killed in action in Somalia. American forces were withdrawn shortly afterwards. In his 1996 declaration of war against Americans, Osama Bin Laden said:
... when tens of your solders were killed in minor battles and one American Pilot was dragged in the streets of Mogadishu you left the area carrying disappointment, humiliation, defeat and your dead with you. Clinton appeared in front of the whole world threatening and promising revenge , but these threats were merely a preparation for withdrawal. You have been disgraced by Allah and you withdrew; the extent of your impotence and weaknesses became very clear.
On August 7th, 1998, American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were attacked with bombs by Islamofascist terrorists. 224 people were killed and 4,500 people were injured. Four individuals were eventually convicted of crimes relating to these bombings and were sentenced to life without parole in October of 2001.
In October of 2000, the U.S.S. Cole was attacked with a bomb by Islamofascist terrorists at a port in Yemen - killing 17 American sailors. President Clinton said, "If, as it now appears, this was an act of terrorism, it was a despicable and cowardly act. We will find out who was responsible and hold them accountable."
On September 11th, 2001, Islamofascist terrorists returned and successfully destroyed New York's World Trade Center. Nearly 3000 people were killed - a fraction of those who were in the towers when they were hit, thanks to a heroic evacuation effort led by New York firefighters - 343 of whom were crushed to death in mid-rescue by the collapsing buildings.
Four days later, at a memorial service in Washington's National Cathedral, President Bush told those listening, "This conflict was begun on the time and terms of others. It will end in a way and at an hour of our choosing."
By December of 2001, Afghanistan's Taliban regime was decisively toppled by combined U.S. military and Afghan rebel efforts. In October of 2004, Afghanistan held a free Presidential election, bringing democracy to a Muslim nation of nearly 20 million people.
In March of 2003, U.S. forces, along with British and Australian, attacked Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq. Among his innumerable crimes against his own people and others, Saddam Hussein regularly paid $25,000 to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers, so perpetuating a hopeless conflict that was used to inspire Islamofascist terrorists worldwide. By April, Saddam's regime was eliminated. In January of 2005, Iraq held a free election for a national assembly, bringing democracy to another Muslim nation of approximately 20 million people, while millions more still under tyranny in the Middle East looked on.
Though, like any recounting of history, this is a selective list of events since that first World Trade Center bombing in 1993, I think the test of its relevance is whether it reflects the underlying march of events since that day. I believe that it does. The march of events has not yet ended, of-course.
So, just a moment's pause in memory of those first World Trade Center victims.
You are viewing an individual item from RightWingBob.com - click here to view the main page.
Email RightWingBob(AT)gmail.com