By Staff
Eight years ago today, terrorists launched attacks on targets on American soil.
Similar to what America did with Japan after the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, America declared war on terrorists in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001.
Isoroku Yamamoto, the Japanese admiral who planned the attack on Pearl Harbor, reportedly had this to say about the attack: “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.” If that attack awoke the “sleeping giant” that was the United States and filled it with “a terrible resolve,” then the terrorist attacks of 9/11 filled the vast majority of Americans with a resolve to never forget the cowardly attacks on innocent people.
The terrorists who carried out the attacks were nothing but criminals. Terrorists should be treated as criminals — hunt them down and put them away. If they choose to respond with armed resistance to attempts to capture them, those hunting them should respond appropriately.
Enough about the terrorists. Today is for remembering those who were killed or injured in the attacks and their families, friends and co-workers, many of whom still suffer physical and emotional scars from that tragic day.
Because of what happened eight years ago, 9/11 has become our new national moment.
As we noted last year, at least one question we have been asking since 9/11 we continue to ask: “Where were you when the twin towers fell?” And as we wrote last year, that question must be followed with this question: “Where is Osama bin Laden, and when are we going to capture him?”
That question must be asked each year until he’s found — dead or alive.
The more than 3,000 victims of 9/11 deserve an appropriate answer to that question.
Bin Laden’s grave will serve quite well as one memorial to the 9/11 victims.