Today is the sixteenth anniversary of the September 11, 2001
Terrorist Attacks on the United
States by al-Qaeda Islamist terrorists. As always on this date especially, we
remember the dead, honor the heroes and express our gratitude for all those
responsible for having preventing another attack on such a scale.
The
policies initiated by President George W. Bush and the Republican-led Congress
after the attacks have been effective in preventing another September 11-scale
attack, especially the removal of the Taliban regime, who had been providing
safe harbor for al-Qaeda, from power in Afghanistan, which is from where
al-Qaeda planned the attacks. As I
explained in my post last month about the War in Afghanistan , it is necessary to
continue that battle of the Global War on Terrorism to prevent the return to
power of the Taliban.
The Bush
era counter-terrorism policies, which, in addition to military and covert
intelligence activity, included improved intelligence sharing both domestically
and internationally, increased tracking of terror financing and prevention of
money-laundering, and the application of additional criminal legal procedures
for law enforcement. Although he
weakened or had attempted to weaken the application of some of these policies,
for the most part, Bush’s successor, Barack Obama, continued them, meaning that
they have been continued across the administrations of both major political
parties. Obama’s successor, in turn, has
also continued them. The Bush
administration also enhanced preparedness for responses to various potential types
of terrorist attacks on the American homeland.
These preparations have been maintained.
It is necessary that these
counter-terrorism policies, including the War on Terrorism, be continued for
the foreseeable future and that governments around the world continue not to
give in to the demands of terrorists, lest terrorism be rewarded and
encouraged. It is also necessary to
continue to condemn terrorism and Islamism and to pray for the thwarting of the
plans of the terrorists and militants, for conversions, and for peace and
tolerance between the Islamic world and the rest. Through all these efforts, we can hope never
to experience another day like the one sixteen years ago today, or even
smaller-scale terrorist and militant attacks on the U.S. homeland or against Americans
abroad.
May God
bless the United States of
America and keep safe all American military,
intelligence, law enforcement and first response personnel and may there never
be another attack like September 11 again anywhere in the world.
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