not the whole war.

It struck me, listening to the Dems go on today about President Bush's supposed 'politicization' of 9/11 in last evening's speech, that they should know what it means to use 9/11 in a political way.  People who spent the bulk of their adult political careers undermining our national defense stood on the Capital steps on 9/11/01, singing God Bless America, for a photo moment to use to campaign, or at least to use to try to defend themselves when called soft on defense.  People who no more would sing God Bless anything sang proudly, as though they would let anyone invoke the name of God in a public place. 

Then came the onslaught of 9/11 widows, those that some have called the 'Jersey Girl's.  Now, I'm not making light of their losses, but tell me, has there been an issue involving President Bush and any defense matter since 9/11 that the Jersey Girls are not dragged onto some talk show to state their opinions?  I guess it is ok for them to use 9/11 for someone's political purpose, but when the President speaks on the anniversary of 9/11, he is called names, chastised for being 'too political'.

The one thing that truly struck me, though, was that in making these criticisms of the President making 9/11 political, a 'wedge' someone said against our 'unity' (which unity is this, by the way?  The unity where the Senators threatened ABC?), the Dems and leftists in this country revealed their true lack of understanding of what 9/11 is and will continue to be.  It was the first seriously considered battle in the war on islamofascism, the battle that we lost, but that woke us up.  Like Pearl Harbor, 9/11 started a process that will end when we win, and not a second sooner. 

Dems don't get that though, anymore than they got any of the events starting with the takeover of our embassy in Tehran, thru Beirut, thru the African embassies, the Cole, London, Madrid.  They don't connect the dots.  They chastise the President for not connecting dots before 9/11, as though anything he did in response to vague threats to take over airplanes would have been accepted by any on the left.  Absent a letter stating date and time of attack, no one on the left would have accepted the restrictions now imposed in airports.  Heck, they rail against them now.  They don't want eavesdropping on bad people because it might mean some good people get caught in the net now and then.  Profiling before 9/11?  They won't go for it now, why would any suggestion by President Bush before 9/11 have been accepted.

Dems and leftists (other than the smart ones like Sen. Lieberman and some others) just don't see how all of these events add up to a war, just like Pearl Harbor was connected to D-day and everything in between, in a worldwide context.  They want each event evaluated on its own merit, and 9/11 seems to me to be almost of holiday proportions to them.  How soon before it is a national holiday, years from now '9/11 holiday sales' at Walmart just as commonplace as a 9/11 barbeque?

I heard someone, I think the dense Keith Olberman, saying something about how not having a memorial at Ground Zero means the terrorists have still won, as though (a) President Bush is delaying that memorial (he's not), and (b) Bin Laden is following the events among those haggling over the monument.  People like Olberman lose the point, lose the focus, politicize what was a speech by the only man in America, President Bush, who does 'get it'.  He understands that Americans and the world need to be reminded about 9/11 not just to remember those who died, but because it began the effort to stop islamofascism in a way that his predecessors failed to see and implement.  Yes, we are at war and will be for the foreseeable future.  Remember 9/11 as we remembered Pearl Harbor day BEFORE Germany, Japan and Italy surrendered...hopefully as the  beginning of the end of the evil.

Westsider.....Becky