Five years after 9/11
September 12, 2006| By Nathaniel Ward
President and Mrs. Bush at Ground Zero.
Five years ago yesterday, 19 Muslim terrorists simultaneously hijacked four American airliners, crashing them into the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon outside Washington, and a field in Pennsylvania. Nearly 3,000 innocent Americans were killed.
“Without question,” Heritage’s Peter Brookes writes on National Review Online, “the horrific attacks of 9/11 unsettled our view of the world, unleashing arguably the greatest foreign-policy and national-security debate since the rise of post-WWII Communism — a debate that continues to this day.”
Just as America adapted its national security strategy as the Cold War got underway, so too has our nation adapted to the terrorist threat. “But even more adjustments to our already-changed thinking on national security will likely be necessary,” he continues, “as we struggle to win the equally critical battle of ideas against the Islamic forces of darkness.”
In a separate article, Brookes outlines American successes in the war on terrorism:
- Improved international cooperation in terrorism investigations
- Expanded human intelligence, with more on-the-ground operatives
- Stepped-up counterterrorism efforts by the FBI
- New programs like the Terrorist Surveillance Program to help connect the dots
Our elected leaders shouldn’t grow complacent, Brookes argues, since many improvements are left to be made. “The most glaring shortcoming has been failing to get Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al Zawahiri. Despite a lot of shifting of [intelligence] assets to catch the deadly duo, they're still on the loose.”
A key battleground in the war on terrorism
Liberals in Congress and the media have made a lot of hay in the past several days about how Iraq and al Qaeda have nothing to do with one another. They’re suggesting—or in some cases saying explicitly—that the ongoing battle in Iraq is not a part of the war on terrorism we began on September 11, 2001.
This is a terribly misguided view. “Whatever the disagreements over the relationship between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein’s regime are,” Heritage Middle East expert Jim Phillips writes, “Iraq today is a strategically vital front in the war on terrorism.”
Al Qaeda’s second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri, sent a letter in 2005 to then-chief Iraqi terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi explaining that Iraq “is now the place for the greatest battle of Islam in this era.” He urged Zarqawi (who was killed in a June airstrike) to “expel the Americans from Iraq” and then “establish an Islamic authority or emirate, then develop it and support it until it achieves the level of a caliphate.” This would be followed by a renewed jihad against Iraq’s secular neighbors and, finally, a confrontation with Israel. Osama bin Laden has sent terrorists from Afghanistan to Iraq to support this murderous cause.
A headlong retreat from Iraq, which many liberals now actively support, would leave a power vacuum in that country and put al Qaeda in a position to achieve its terrible goals. “If the U.S. abandons Iraq,” Phillips warns, “it will become the next Afghanistan—a major source of terrorism, subversion, and warfare for decades to come.”
UN meddling in civil society
The United Nations today, instead of being the champion of freedom and civil society that it should be, works to promote big government and the nanny state and undermines traditional values. This is the core argument of a new paper by Jennifer Marshall and Grace Smith of Heritage’s DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society.
The United Nations is now involved with “international policymaking on a wide range of issues,” they explain. Instead of concerning itself with matters between states, international law has in recent years sought to regulate the social policies of countries with regard to their own citizens. “International treaties and conventions, customary law, and regulatory declarations by technical experts,” they argue, “have affected policy on social issues from education to women’s health.”
Marshall and Smith point out that these are issues that the Constitution leaves to American lawmakers, not international bureaucrats. It is up to local, state and federal elected officials to decide social policy, and many of the issues the UN has poked its nose into “are outside the purview of public policy altogether as matters subject to individual private decisions.” This meddling poses a direct threat to traditional institutions like families, churches and other community organizations that keep our society strong.
Congress and the administration should resist “encroachment into these areas by the United Nations and its many subsidiaries,” Marshall and Smith conclude. “Preserving constitutional authority over domestic policy should be a clear objective within overall U.S. foreign policy. Protecting civil society is critical to the freedom agenda.”
A good first step on spending
Last week, House and Senate negotiators agreed on new legislation that would create a new public database of federal earmarks and contracts. This law is an essential first step on spending reform, allowing fiscal conservatives in Washington and around the country to identify government waste and corruption. House leaders say they will vote on the transparency measure this week.
Unfortunately, we have a long way to go. “Lawmakers give lip service to eliminating earmarks but don’t want to unilaterally disarm,” Heritage budget expert Brian Riedl tells The Hill, a newspaper for Congressional staff. “That’s the mentality that guarantees the earmarks will never go away.”
It was a grassroots effort that allowed this transparency measure to pass, as Americans around the country went to work to identify those blocking it. Conservatives should now work to educate our lawmakers about the importance of earmark reform and, more broadly, reining in runaway federal spending.
In other news
- Islamic terrorists with suspected ties to al Qaeda attempted to storm the US embassy in Damascus, Syria this morning. Three of the heavily-armed terrorists and one Syrian security guard were killed; no Americans were hurt.
- Primary elections are being held today in several states, including Arizona, Delaware, Maryland, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont.
- On Sunday and Monday, ABC aired a documentary, based in large part on the official 9/11 Commission Report, about the policy failures that allowed al Qaeda to successfully launch the devastating attacks of 2001. Liberals, appalled that the program portrayed the Clinton administration’s failures as much as it did the Bush administration’s, went so far as to argue that the program shouldn’t be aired at all, and liberal Senators even threatened the network’s broadcast license.
- Chicago Mayor Richard Daley yesterday vetoed legislation that would have put poor Chicagoans out of work, increased the cost of living and stifled business development. The “living wage” law, the first bill he has vetoed in 17 years, would have doubled the city’s minimum wage for large businesses.
- Gasoline prices have fallen an average of nearly 11 cents a gallon in the past week, reaching a five-month low, USA Today reports. The newspaper explains that increased fuel imports, drawn by high prices, led to an increased supply. It’s fortunate that Congress didn’t act on some of the counterproductive energy policies it was considering earlier this summer, since the basic economic principle of supply-and-demand is working just fine to ease our energy woes.
- Variety magazine reports that a despicable film about the future assassination of President Bush may be released in the United States.
Coming up at Heritage
To attend these or any other Heritage Foundation events, RSVP at Heritage’s events website. Or you can watch these events live online at Heritage.org. All times are Eastern.
- On Friday, September 15 from 1:00 to 3:00 pm, Heritage hosts a discussion with experts from government and the private sector about ways to improve airline security in the face of evolving threats.
- On Thursday, September 21 at noon, Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-CO) will discuss the need to restore public confidence in our immigration laws by controlling the border and enforcing the law internally.
Nathaniel Ward is the Editor of MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation.
