Daves-first-blog

Three years ago today, 3,000 people were murdered in coordinated terrorist attacks in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania. Yet the man who orchestrated these atrocities remains free.

For what he did, Osama bin Laden should be dead or in U.S. custody. No evidence suggests he is dead, and he is not in custody.

Because he remains free, extraordinary security precautions surround today’s Ohio State football game, considered a terrorist target because 100,000 spectators will be gathered in the heart of a state that is key to the presidential election.

Because bin Laden is at liberty, election and law-enforcement officials nationwide are busy planning extra security at polling places on Nov. 2.

Because bin Laden has not been captured, the nation’s capital and national monuments, including the Statue of Liberty, have been militarized and fortified.
The Bush administration can claim that bin Laden and his cohorts are on the run. But bin Laden and his cohorts plausibly can claim the opposite. All bin Laden has to do is point to the armed men and surveillance helicopters around Ohio Stadium.

How did the destruction of bin Laden slip so far down the nation’s todo list? Why are the bulk of U.S. military and intelligence assets tied up in Iraq, which posed only a hypothetical threat, while pursuit of the man who slaughtered thousands of Americans on their own soil is on the back burner?

Where is the anger? The Sept. 11 victims were not killed by a natural disaster, such as a hurricane, which cannot be brought to justice and against which rage is futile. They were killed by a man. A man can be made to pay. Why hasn’t he paid?

This is the question President Bush should be answering today and tomorrow and every day until Nov. 2. And where is Sen. John Kerry, who loudly proclaims his determination to strike back at any attack on the United States? The attack has occurred. Where is his pledge to make apprehension of bin Laden, dead or alive, Job No. 1?

Would bin Laden’s death eliminate terrorism? Of course not. Quick victory over this kind of nihilism and barbarism isn’t possible. But every day bin Laden remains free is a defeat for justice and for civilization. His continued existence, his ability to poison a seemingly impotent world, incites and encourages his followers and imitators.
Terrorism as a philosophy must be fought on many fronts: moral, social, political, financial and legal. But terrorists must be confronted with force. They must be killed or caged. The civilized world must make clear that anyone who resorts to terrorism, especially leaders of terrorists, will suffer harsh consequences.

Not long ago, The Dispatch pointed out that the major broadcast and cable networks had stopped broadcasting images of the hijacked airliners slamming into the towers of the World Trade Center. That decision was taken to spare the families of the dead and to shield children. But, The Dispatch noted, without the visual reminder of what happened, Americans might remember only their grief, not their anger.

Let today be filled with remembrance of those killed three years ago. But let it also be a day to remember who killed them.

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# posted by N.D. Burnside @ 9:15 AM