4um: Stu Bykofsky | To save America, we need another 9/11

ONE MONTH from The Anniversary, I'm thinking another 9/11 would help America.

What kind of a sick bastard would write such a thing?

A bastard so sick of how splintered we are politically - thanks mainly to our ineptitude in Iraq - that we have forgotten who the enemy is.

It is not Bush and it is not Hillary and it is not Daily Kos or Bill O'Reilly or Giuliani or Barack. It is global terrorists who use Islam to justify their hideous sins, including blowing up women and children.

Iraq has fractured the U.S. into jigsaw pieces of competing interests that encourage our enemies. We are deeply divided and division is weakness.

Most Americans today believe Iraq was a mistake. Why?

Not because Americans are "anti-war."

Americans have turned their backs because the war has dragged on too long and we don't have the patience for a long slog. We've been in Iraq for four years, but to some it seems like a century. In contrast, Britain just pulled its soldiers out of Northern Ireland where they had been, often being shot at, almost 40 years.

That's not the American way.

In Iraq, we don't believe our military is being beaten on the battleground. It's more that there is no formal "battleground." There is the drip of daily casualties and victory is not around the corner. Americans are impatient. We like fast food and fast war.

Americans loved the 1991 Gulf War. It raged for just 100 hours when George H.W. Bush ended it with a declaration of victory. He sent a half-million troops into harm's way and we suffered fewer than 300 deaths.

America likes wars shorter than the World Series.

Bush I did everything right, Bush II did everything wrong - but he did it with the backing of Congress.

Because the war has been a botch so far, Democrats and Republicans are attacking one another, when they aren't attacking themselves. The dialog of discord echoes across America.

Turn back to 9/11.

Remember the community of outrage and national resolve? America had not been so united since the first Day of Infamy - 12/7/41.

We knew who the enemy was then.

We knew who the enemy was shortly after 9/11.

Because we have mislaid 9/11, we have endless sideshow squabbles about whether the surge is working, if we are "safer" now, whether the FBI should listen in on foreign phone calls, whether cops should detain odd-acting "flying imams," whether those plotting alleged attacks on Fort Dix or Kennedy airport are serious threats or amateur bumblers. We bicker over the trees while the forest is ablaze.

America's fabric is pulling apart like a cheap sweater.

What would sew us back together?

Another 9/11 attack.

The Golden Gate Bridge. Mount Rushmore. Chicago's Wrigley Field. The Philadelphia subway system. The U.S. is a target-rich environment for al Qaeda.

Is there any doubt they are planning to hit us again?

If it is to be, then let it be. It will take another attack on the homeland to quell the chattering of chipmunks and to restore America's righteous rage and singular purpose to prevail.

The unity brought by such an attack sadly won't last forever.

The first 9/11 proved that. *

E-mail stubyko@phillynews.com or call 215-854-5977. For recent columns:

http://go.philly.com/byko.

From article: "A bastard so sick of how splintered we are politically - thanks mainly to our ineptitude in Iraq - that we have forgotten who the enemy is. It is not Bush and it is not Hillary and it is not Daily Kos or Bill O'Reilly or Giuliani or Barack. It is global terrorists who use Islam to justify their hideous sins, including blowing up women and children. Iraq has fractured the U.S. into jigsaw pieces of competing interests that encourage our enemies. We are deeply divided and division is weakness. Most Americans today believe Iraq was a mistake. Why? Not because Americans are "anti-war." Americans have turned their backs because the war has dragged on too long and we don't have the patience for a long slog. We've been in Iraq for four years, but to some it seems like a century. In contrast, Britain just pulled its soldiers out of Northern Ireland where they had been, often being shot at, almost 40 years."

He makes some good points, but fails to realize that the unity would only last a few months, just like last time. After the initial shock and trauma wears off, the American America haters will always feel most comfortable laying the blame on their own country. Even if a terrorist slammed a plane right into their home in LA, killing their family and their dog.

I started reading this piece with guarded pessimism, but by the end I realized that this column is the result of the inability of so many members of our media to think logically.

He wishes we'd have another 9/11 so we would be united...but he seems to forget that such unity lasted only until we went to Afghanistan ("a quagmire" as Ted Kennedy and others called it).

Our president is not tying our soldiers' hands. I see those who say this as being just as illogical as this writer. The troop surge which is getting results is not done to appease the left--really, if Bush were going to appease the left or foreign governments, we never would have gone into Iraq. Some people are exhibiting the behavior this writer sees, which is the need for speed.

But we're not ONLY fighting a war--we're trying to build a country that can serve as an alternative to the kind of world Al Qaeda wants--ON the battleground of that war.

Do most people know how incredibly difficult that is?

The Ron Paul fools believe we can just up and leave Iraq. I have an idea along the lines of this columnist's "thinking"--why not just go into our kids' rooms and smother them? That way we would be guaranteeing they never have to live in a world run by Muslim wackjobs.

Bush is flawed in so many ways, but he's always seemed to me to be focused on what MUST be done in the Middle East, now, not later. I suspect this is due to his having briefings on national security and Al Qaeda's actions, the near-misses, the wiretaps, etc.

Abu Grahbe, Gitmo and other such embarassments are minor, MINOR flaws (which the critics seem to forget have been dealt with, the perps punished, as they should be). We have lost many brave Americans in Iraq who would be alive today if we had perfect foresight, perfect intel, and Iraqis who weren't cowed by decades under a dictator, living in the shadow of Muslim extremism. I hate to sound so glib, since I never served in the military, but FDR lost more men in one day of WW2 than we've lost so far in Iraq...and the stakes, while not as obvious, are just as high.

We don't need another 9/11. We need the bitching, whining, overly-coddled "moderates" and leftists in this country to get a clue. They strike me as a bunch of scared brats who don't believe things can REALLY be that bad.

All they have to do is look to the Middle East. If they don't get their **** together and join the president in trying to WIN this war--heck, if they don't first admit we are AT war--then we may get many more 9/11's, and the result will not be what this columnist wants, but outcries to retreat...and we'll have more 9/11's than you could imagine after that.

Golly, what believable tripe. What the f**k is he trying to say, something like "Yes, Israel controls US government, but they wanted us to stay out of Iraq." ?