Phyrfight Intel

From: Best of the Web

9/20, Five Years On
“Everyone took note of last week’s fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, but blogger “Tigerhawk” notes an anniversary of an event of equal importance: President Bush’s Sept. 20, 2001, war speech to a joint session of Congress. The speech holds up awfully well. Here are a few highlights:

The terrorists practice a fringe form of Islamic extremism that has been rejected by Muslim scholars and the vast majority of Muslim clerics; a fringe movement that perverts the peaceful teachings of Islam. . . .

Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated. . . .

Americans are asking, why do they hate us?

They hate what they see right here in this chamber: a democratically elected government. Their leaders are self-appointed. They hate our freedoms: our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other.

They want to overthrow existing governments in many Muslim countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. They want to drive Israel out of the Middle East. They want to drive Christians and Jews out of vast regions of Asia and Africa.

These terrorists kill not merely to end lives, but to disrupt and end a way of life. With every atrocity, they hope that America grows fearful, retreating from the world and forsaking our friends. They stand against us because we stand in their way. . .

This war will not be like the war against Iraq a decade ago, with a decisive liberation of territory and a swift conclusion. It will not look like the air war above Kosovo two years ago, where no ground troops were used and not a single American was lost in combat.

Our response involves far more than instant retaliation and isolated strikes. Americans should not expect one battle, but a lengthy campaign, unlike any other we have ever seen.

In the years since, the president’s critics have faulted, indeed pilloried, him for standing behind these words. We went back and looked at our Sept. 21, 2001, item on the speech, and we were most struck by the concluding paragraph:

To get a sense of how united America is in the wake of Sept. 11, consider the reactions of some of those who, two weeks ago, could have been accurately described as Bush-haters. Bushwatch.com carries an item called “Bush in the zone. Gives best speech of his career.” (Scroll down two items to see this site’s pre-Sept. 11 attitude; a Sept. 7 item is headed “As the Bushes get more comfortable in D.C., their arrogance increases.”) Even Buzzflash.com gives a huge banner headline to a quote from the Bush speech, presented with no apparent irony: “The enemy of America is not our many Muslim friends. It is not our many Arab friends. Our enemy is a radical network of terrorists and every government that supports them.”

Bush-hatred, of course, was back in full force (or more) within about a year and a half of 9/20. And in part, as we’ve argued before, the return to politics as usual is a sign of America’s strength. But those who cheered Bush back then as he described the enormous task ahead, only to turn into (or back into) bitter critics with no strategic alternatives to offer, have to be judged fundamentally unserious about America’s national security.”