George W. Bush, at the White House, the evening of September 11, 2001:
"We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them."
When President Bush said those words I knew that finally the terror states' deniability - their most important protection - was about to end. Sovereign states are responsible for the terrorists they fund, train, and harbor. Terrorists are their proxy weapon against us. For too long these states had been shielded by deniability as Americans, Israelis, and Europeans were murdered and our embassies, barracks, skyscrapers, and ships attacked by the Islamic terrorists that they sponsored. Decades of increasingly audacious and atrocious attacks against the West had culminated in the slaughter of thousands of Americans within hours.
On September 11, 2001 I believed that the day's atrocity had to be the death warrant for regimes that sponsor international Islamic terrorism. All of them, not just those directly responsible for 9/11.
I also support wiretapping of foreign terrorists, Guantanamo, extraordinary rendition, data mining, surveillance of terror-affiliated mosques, military tribunals, executions of terrorists, and tough interrogation for the likes of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. I strongly suspect that Abraham Lincoln, Woodrow Wilson, and FDR would too. People with no understanding of history go into paroxysms of paranoia about such things, ignorantly assuming that all of these practices are without precedent.
Of course, the White House has made mistakes. The administration is still far too restrained, both in dealing with terrror states and terrorist organizations abroad and fighting terrorists at home. While it is true that our military is much too small, in both budget and personnel, the real limitations are those which are self-imposed.
In the future American resolve to do what necessity demands must be greater, and hence our self-imposed restraint lower. Otherwise, we will not prevail.