by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright April 1, 2006
All Rights Reserved.

wenty-eight-year-old Christian Science Monitor reporter Jill Carroll emerged from captivity, after an 82-day hostage ordeal, finally wining her release acting in a propaganda video. Four-and-a-half years before, Osama bin Laden's programmed assassins flew airliners into the World Trade Center and Pentagon Sept. 11, 2001, a horrific nightmare permanently etched into memory banks of the American psyche. Watching the World Trade Center's Twin Towers hit by passenger jets, billow with smoke and eventually collapse reminds Americans why we fight. Recently released transcripts of 911 dispatchers desperately trying to calm down doomed bystanders, asphyxiated by smoke and watching fellow victims break windows and leap to their deaths, give the best rationale for why we fight. No matter how misguided the intelligence or egregious the mistakes, the rationale is clear.

      We fight the terrorists in Iraq not because Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9/11 but because America must respond for the unthinkable horror perpetrated on Sept. 11. Against objections from New York City officials, The New Your State Court of Appeals ordered the city to release one-sided transcripts of 911 operators but not the pleas of victims trapped in the Twin Towers. Out of respect to the families of the 3,000 dead, the court exempted the city from divulging last-ditch cries before the final meltdown. “I know it's hard to breathe. I know it is,” the dispatcher told a desperate caller. “OK, listen, listen, listen to me, listen to me; OK? Listen, don't—Try not to panic. You can save your air supply by doing that, OK?” experiencing the same helplessness as callers, realizing options were limited for victims and courageous firefighters trapped with no way out.

      Redacting the 911 transcripts to only the dispatchers gives a one sided story, preventing the public from understanding the true horror of Sept. 11. No American should forget the barbarism inflicted on hapless New Yorkers. Today's weak resolve for Iraq would be helped by a fresh dose of the suffering heaped on fellow citizens caught in the Twin Towers. Remembering 9/11 reminds the walking amnesics why we fight in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. While Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice admits to a “thousand mistakes” in Iraq, she believes the overall mission was worth the price. Regardless of the mistakes, we fight to counter the poisonous tide of Islamic extremism, compromising the American way of life. Sept. 11 breached U.S. borders but couldn't vanquish the freedoms earned from a painful history of defeating Colonialism, Racism, Fascism and Communism.

      We fight to warn the world that the sleeping giant has awakened, willing, paraphrasing John F. Kennedy's 1961 Inaugural Address, to meet any hardship, endure any burden and sacrifice what it takes to ensure the survival of liberty. Osama bin Laden attacked more than real estate and human flesh. He sought to crush American spirit and resolve to expand the frontiers of human progress, making the world, and all its inhabitants, a better place. We fight to stop the barbaric beheadings designed to intimidate the U.S. into giving up. Soldiers placed in harm's way fight to preserve the freedom threatened by barbarians whose objective involves inducing a national phobia, robbing the American spirit of its freedom of movement, expression and, yes, thought. When Saddam rejoiced after Sept. 11, we fight to tell America's enemies that the U.S. doesn't back down when its values and principles are attacked by savage outlaws lashing out with impunity.

      Bin Laden attacked New York because it symbolizes the American dream where individuals from all corners of the globe seek opportunity and a better life. Islamo-Fascism institutionalizes racism, practicing the most primitive form of tribal intolerance where any deviation from the Koran is seen as blasphemy invoking a death warrant. Intolerant group-think was seen recently in Afghanistan where 41-year old Abdul Rahman faces a possible death sentence for converting from Islam to Christianity. American soldiers spill their blood in Iraq and Afghanistan for “democracy,” when the majority regards freedom of speech and religion as unacceptable. There's a big difference between fighting to preserve American values and fighting to push democratic principles on foreign soil. Sept. 11 empowered America to defend its principles not impose them on reluctant participants.

      Returning Jill Carroll to safety was one of the bright spots in an otherwise disastrous situation in Iraq. American-style democracy won't work when ethnocentrism, xenophobia and intolerance are preferred traits in a tribal society finding its own identity. We fight in Iraq and Afghanistan not to impose American will but to defend the nation against Islamo-Fascism that declared war on Sept. 11. If Rahman's experience tells the story, then the White House has no business spilling more American blood in a grand but untested experiment to impose democracy on a primitive tribal society. “They want to sentence me to death, and I accept it,” Rahman told reporters, facing trial for converting from Islam to Christianity. Rahman's case tells the real story behind U.S. efforts to create Western-style democracies in the Middle East: We fight to defend our liberty not to impose it on others.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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