Twelve years ago the most horrific attack on American home soil took place. It happened because of a political ideology known as Islam. The 3,000 innocent men, women and children who died that day must never be forgotten. And we must never forget an enemy which has vowed to destroy us.
Obama has of course sought to forget about them. Indeed, he is siding with the al-Qaida rebels in Syria, as well as the anti-Western Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. And in the meantime, we still await justice for the 9/11 victims. As Michelle Malkin reminds us:
“A dozen years after the 9/11 attacks, the trials against the jihadist plotters who incinerated pregnant women, firefighters, grandparents, newlyweds, toddlers and schoolkids on their first-ever plane rides have yet to begin. Justice not only has been delayed and denied. Justice has been demoted, disowned and deserted. Justice for the 9/11 victims and families isn’t blindfolded. She’s gagged and hogtied.”
She concludes her article: “Debra Burlingame, founder of 9/11 Families for a Safe and Strong America and sister of American Airlines Flight 77 pilot Charles Frank ‘Chic’ Burlingame III (the flight the jihadists crashed into the Pentagon) sounded the alarm and warned the Obama/Holder brigade: ‘We will fight you all the way.’
“That’s the unapologetic vigilance America was supposed to have adopted after the towers fell, the planes crashed and the ashes choked the air. Instead, America’s leaders have allowed jihadists to make a mockery of justice. Muslim Brotherhood radicals waltz freely in and out of the nation’s capital. Border security remains a joke. A functioning entry-exit program for foreign visa-holders is still nonexistent. There still is no systemic, coherent and unapologetic plan to keep Islamic radicals from spreading their hate and endangering Americans in our military, prisons and schools.
“I’m sick of 9/11 anniversary ceremonies by politicians who pay lip service to peace and justice for our country, but refuse to secure them all the way, every day. Remembrance is worthless without resolve. Resolve is useless without action. Want to honor the 9/11 dead? Take care of unfinished business here at home. Put America first.”
Yet Obama is not doing this. He is happily allowing a ‘million man Muslim march’ on Washington this day. Since our leaders are in bed with the Islamists, a ‘2 million man biker’ ride on Washington is also planned for the day. It should be an interesting confrontation.
But amidst all the still raw emotion, pain and grief, there are some images we can never forget. Some of the most unforgettable images of 9/11 are of the ‘jumpers’ – those who were forced to leap out of the burning WTC to their death far below.
Four years ago an important article on this appeared in Esquire magazine. “The Falling Man” by Tom Junod discusses one of these jumpers. He writes: “Some people who look at the picture see stoicism, willpower, a portrait of resignation; others see something else – something discordant and therefore terrible: freedom. There is something almost rebellious in the man’s posture, as though once faced with the inevitability of death, he decided to get on with it; as though he were a missile, a spear, bent on attaining his own end.
“He is, fifteen seconds past 9:41 a.m. EST, the moment the picture is taken, in the clutches of pure physics, accelerating at a rate of thirty-two feet per second squared. He will soon be traveling at upwards of 150 miles per hour, and he is upside down. In the picture, he is frozen; in his life outside the frame, he drops and keeps dropping until he disappears.”
He continues: “They began jumping not long after the first plane hit the North Tower, not long after the fire started. They kept jumping until the tower fell. They jumped through windows already broken and then, later, through windows they broke themselves. They jumped to escape the smoke and the fire; they jumped when the ceilings fell and the floors collapsed; they jumped just to breathe once more before they died.
“They jumped continually, from all four sides of the building, and from all floors above and around the building’s fatal wound. They jumped from the offices of Marsh & McLennan, the insurance company; from the offices of Cantor Fitzgerald, the bond-trading company; from Windows on the World, the restaurant on the 106th and 107th floors – the top.
“For more than an hour and a half, they streamed from the building, one after another, consecutively rather than en masse, as if each individual required the sight of another individual jumping before mustering the courage to jump himself or herself. One photograph, taken at a distance, shows people jumping in perfect sequence, like parachutists, forming an arc composed of three plummeting people, evenly spaced.
“Indeed, there were reports that some tried parachuting, before the force generated by their fall ripped the drapes, the tablecloths, the desperately gathered fabric, from their hands. They were all, obviously, very much alive on their way down, and their way down lasted an approximate count of ten seconds. They were all, obviously, not just killed when they landed but destroyed, in body though not, one prays, in soul.
“One hit a fireman on the ground and killed him; the fireman’s body was anointed by Father Mychal Judge, whose own death, shortly thereafter, was embraced as an example of martyrdom after the photograph — the redemptive tableau – of firefighters carrying his body from the rubble made its way around the world.”
Let these moving words, and the haunting image which accompanies the article, be forever burned onto your hearts and minds. This is why we must never forget.
It`s can be a fine line for me between judging and learning. What I find incredible is that we seem to bend over backwards accommodating people who declare hatred for the west, for Christians and for democracy, only to persecute those who build the west, build communities with values, morals and want to see others share in that joy.
Good article Bill.
Johannes Archer
Now might be a time to remember Ezekiel. Russia an Iran are supporting the Syrian Government. Iraq is loosely controlled by America, Syria stands as a gateway to Israel and to Saudi Arabia. This is why both Israel and Saudi Arabia are interested in the takeover.
Either way America Loses. The only way America can win in Syria is to fight both sides and occupy Syria as a puppet state. That would of course be likely to lead to a nuclear exchange.
This is a Cuban missile crisis with multiple unequal WMD players where not everyone is thinking rationally. This situation cannot be avoided as air strikes against Iran are no longer a valid option.
Obama himself is said to have been born in Kenya then raised as a Muslim in Indonesia and converted to Christianity. If he is a false convert then he might want Americas destruction. His half brother Malik Obama was apparently involved in the takeover of Egypt.
People close to Obama died like his Aunt and a close friend Donald Young. Even the team that killed Osama Bin Laden was killed. Either Obama is the run of the mill democrat or he is a villain actively seeking to advance Islam.
John McAllister
I think it’s unfair to say that Obama is siding with the rebels. Perhaps that is how it looks to you from afar. But, from closer up (I’m so close I could almost see his armpit), it looks more like he’s trying very hard to walk a very perilous line between actually siding with the rebels and holding the line on Assad and Russia. I am not the biggest Obama fan, I had decided during the last election to not even vote (that would have been a first for me), but I can hear by his very breaths that he understands quite clearly the implications of action in Syria at this time.
Julia Marks
Thanks Julia
Sorry but you are incorrect here. Obama is of course not only siding with the rebels in Syria, but he is in fact arming them as well. See here for more on this:
The most disgusting fools in all of this are the ones who for whatever reason insist that the whole 9-11 incident was a so-called ‘false flag’ operation by the US government to bring the United States into what they mistakenly call the New World Order. This lot ostracizes anyone who refuses to agree with them, calling them various names from traitor to government plant.
Now to Mr. McAllister’s claim that we should not forget Ezekiel. I will assume that he is referring to Ezekiel 38, the War of Gog and Magog.
The false prophecy pundits of premillennialism have for years tried to make us all believe that Gog is Russia, despite the language and Scripture facts that there are two Gog and Magog battles mentioned in Scripture, one in Ezekiel 38-39, and one in Revelation 20, which no one EVER BOTHERS TO READ because ‘it happens at the end of the millennium.’
Well guess what folks. Here are some facts you need to consider:
1. The word Rosh doesn’t mean Russia. It’s the Hebrew word for chief or head.
2. The only thing that Meschech and Moscow have in common is that they both begin with an ‘M’.
3. Check the lists of nations involved in each prophecy, you will find that the ones in Ezekiel 38-39 are specific, whilst Revelation 20 says that the nations are from the four corners of the earth.
4. The events of Revelation 20 occur after a long period of Christian dominion over the earth, in which the Gospel is given to the nations world-wide and belief in Christ becomes the predominant religion (see Isaiah 2), followed by the release of Satan to deceive the nations one final time.
5. Satan IS Gog, the chief of Magog (the godless peoples of the world who have rejected Christ.) and Satan IS invisibly leading these people worldwide against the Holy City (the Church in the world), and surrounding it.
Rather than focus on the sideshow, understand that God is the One in control and that Gog and Magog will be defeated by fire from heaven and the godless judged and cast into Gehenna.
Ed Sumner
Twelve years after the terrifying events of 9/11, which reverberated around the world, and the calculated destruction by aeroplanes of the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York in 2001, I watched a documentary film about The Falling Man. Difficult to stay with, it focused on the photo of a man, one of our human-kind, falling from a towering building, from about 100 storeys up, at first flailing wildly and at last plummeting inert, head down, to his death. It was a searing image and I agree with the programme producers that it was in a way iconic, representing the death of the hundreds if not thousands of unknown victims who died that day. The programme tried to trace who this particular man was, among all the other desperate souls who also jumped to their death. We became aware of how the man was at first wrongly identified as an Hispanic person and the fear struck at the heart of his family that he may have committed suicide, a mortal sin to a Christian believer. But this was proved not to be the man in the photo and with further enquiries they traced a person who could well have been the tragic victim. They spoke to his sister, someone very close to the tragic victim – in life humorous and vivacious. The sister was awe-inspiring in her ability to deal with the unacceptable,filled with inner peace and like her brother, strong in her faith On reflection I think I would have been too scared to jump although a split second decision had to be made by all those trapped on the upper floors whether to stay and be burned or to jump, to breath air, with some remote possibility that they might escape death. Far from suicide, I see the jumping as wanting to live and escape death. On reflection however, I thought “supposing that photo had been of someone I knew and loved, I would not want that photo to be magnicied, but to stay impersonal.
The programme made me think deeply about the shocking events, even imagining falling 100 storeys. It made me think “and that was done in the name of radical Islam – an ideology, a hatred of American capitalism, which took no thought of individuals.” War waged upon all individuals of whatever country or creed is horrifying, especially upon innocent civilians. Let us hope that the tense situation in Syria can be solved by diplomacy instead.
Rachel Smith
To Ed
I wasn’t saying that Gog is Russia but Magog. Firstly Magog Appears in the Table of Nations in Genesis 10. Jews in 1st century saw Magog as the Scythians north of Georgia. They may be totally wrong. It may instead talk about Chechnya or the breakaway states for the Soviet Union or something else entirely.
Gog is the title for a daemon prince, like the prince of Greece and the prince of Persia. Jews talk about the coming of the Messiah, Christians talk about the second coming. I believe the two battles are different.
Meshech and Tubal are believed to be Turkey. Turkey is turning into a Fundamental Islamic State. I can see it supporting the words of the Ezekiel.
When I see the events taking place I am amazed at how close our current situation is to these prophecies.
I thank you for challenging me. It helps us strengthen our faith and sharpen our wit. Please feel free to reply to my comments if you feel I may have made a mistake.
John McAllister
Julia Marks, would to God that you jest! Putting all La-La Land delusion aside, I, for one, will never, ever, never ever, ever, ever, forget those poor souls who went to work, thinking it would be another, par for the course, normal day…and ended up deciding they must instead jump to their death. I don’t care who thinks I’m a sicko, I watch all the 9-11 movies, documentaries, (not the wacko conspiracy ones), and jumpers clip out there twice yearly, as I have vowed never, ever, ever to forget. Thank you, Bill, and thank the Lord that there are those who yearly remind us and memorialize the lives taken and bring to the forefront the evil that is Islam. I’m not brilliant, so this isn’t MY saying…no, it comes from a movie, but there it is, (and hey, former Prez Obama, howse about YOU take a note here), with Christianity, our God did not, nor has He ever, asked US to die for HIM. Instead, He loves us first and so much that HE died FOR US! Now , THAT IS true (Agape) love.
Four years ago an important article on this appeared in Esquire magazine. “The Falling Man” by Tom Junod discusses one of these jumpers. He writes: “Some people who look at the picture see stoicism, willpower, a portrait of resignation; others see something else – something discordant and therefore terrible: freedom. There is something almost rebellious in the man’s posture, as though once faced with the inevitability of death, he decided to get on with it; as though he were a missile, a spear, bent on attaining his own end.
It`s can be a fine line for me between judging and learning. What I find incredible is that we seem to bend over backwards accommodating people who declare hatred for the west, for Christians and for democracy, only to persecute those who build the west, build communities with values, morals and want to see others share in that joy.
Good article Bill.
Johannes Archer
Now might be a time to remember Ezekiel. Russia an Iran are supporting the Syrian Government. Iraq is loosely controlled by America, Syria stands as a gateway to Israel and to Saudi Arabia. This is why both Israel and Saudi Arabia are interested in the takeover.
Either way America Loses. The only way America can win in Syria is to fight both sides and occupy Syria as a puppet state. That would of course be likely to lead to a nuclear exchange.
This is a Cuban missile crisis with multiple unequal WMD players where not everyone is thinking rationally. This situation cannot be avoided as air strikes against Iran are no longer a valid option.
Obama himself is said to have been born in Kenya then raised as a Muslim in Indonesia and converted to Christianity. If he is a false convert then he might want Americas destruction. His half brother Malik Obama was apparently involved in the takeover of Egypt.
People close to Obama died like his Aunt and a close friend Donald Young. Even the team that killed Osama Bin Laden was killed. Either Obama is the run of the mill democrat or he is a villain actively seeking to advance Islam.
John McAllister
I think it’s unfair to say that Obama is siding with the rebels. Perhaps that is how it looks to you from afar. But, from closer up (I’m so close I could almost see his armpit), it looks more like he’s trying very hard to walk a very perilous line between actually siding with the rebels and holding the line on Assad and Russia. I am not the biggest Obama fan, I had decided during the last election to not even vote (that would have been a first for me), but I can hear by his very breaths that he understands quite clearly the implications of action in Syria at this time.
Julia Marks
Thanks Julia
Sorry but you are incorrect here. Obama is of course not only siding with the rebels in Syria, but he is in fact arming them as well. See here for more on this:
https://billmuehlenberg.com/2013/08/29/on-syria/
https://billmuehlenberg.com/2013/08/31/syria-and-running-on-emotion/
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
The most disgusting fools in all of this are the ones who for whatever reason insist that the whole 9-11 incident was a so-called ‘false flag’ operation by the US government to bring the United States into what they mistakenly call the New World Order. This lot ostracizes anyone who refuses to agree with them, calling them various names from traitor to government plant.
Now to Mr. McAllister’s claim that we should not forget Ezekiel. I will assume that he is referring to Ezekiel 38, the War of Gog and Magog.
The false prophecy pundits of premillennialism have for years tried to make us all believe that Gog is Russia, despite the language and Scripture facts that there are two Gog and Magog battles mentioned in Scripture, one in Ezekiel 38-39, and one in Revelation 20, which no one EVER BOTHERS TO READ because ‘it happens at the end of the millennium.’
Well guess what folks. Here are some facts you need to consider:
1. The word Rosh doesn’t mean Russia. It’s the Hebrew word for chief or head.
2. The only thing that Meschech and Moscow have in common is that they both begin with an ‘M’.
3. Check the lists of nations involved in each prophecy, you will find that the ones in Ezekiel 38-39 are specific, whilst Revelation 20 says that the nations are from the four corners of the earth.
4. The events of Revelation 20 occur after a long period of Christian dominion over the earth, in which the Gospel is given to the nations world-wide and belief in Christ becomes the predominant religion (see Isaiah 2), followed by the release of Satan to deceive the nations one final time.
5. Satan IS Gog, the chief of Magog (the godless peoples of the world who have rejected Christ.) and Satan IS invisibly leading these people worldwide against the Holy City (the Church in the world), and surrounding it.
Rather than focus on the sideshow, understand that God is the One in control and that Gog and Magog will be defeated by fire from heaven and the godless judged and cast into Gehenna.
Ed Sumner
Twelve years after the terrifying events of 9/11, which reverberated around the world, and the calculated destruction by aeroplanes of the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in New York in 2001, I watched a documentary film about The Falling Man. Difficult to stay with, it focused on the photo of a man, one of our human-kind, falling from a towering building, from about 100 storeys up, at first flailing wildly and at last plummeting inert, head down, to his death. It was a searing image and I agree with the programme producers that it was in a way iconic, representing the death of the hundreds if not thousands of unknown victims who died that day. The programme tried to trace who this particular man was, among all the other desperate souls who also jumped to their death. We became aware of how the man was at first wrongly identified as an Hispanic person and the fear struck at the heart of his family that he may have committed suicide, a mortal sin to a Christian believer. But this was proved not to be the man in the photo and with further enquiries they traced a person who could well have been the tragic victim. They spoke to his sister, someone very close to the tragic victim – in life humorous and vivacious. The sister was awe-inspiring in her ability to deal with the unacceptable,filled with inner peace and like her brother, strong in her faith On reflection I think I would have been too scared to jump although a split second decision had to be made by all those trapped on the upper floors whether to stay and be burned or to jump, to breath air, with some remote possibility that they might escape death. Far from suicide, I see the jumping as wanting to live and escape death. On reflection however, I thought “supposing that photo had been of someone I knew and loved, I would not want that photo to be magnicied, but to stay impersonal.
The programme made me think deeply about the shocking events, even imagining falling 100 storeys. It made me think “and that was done in the name of radical Islam – an ideology, a hatred of American capitalism, which took no thought of individuals.” War waged upon all individuals of whatever country or creed is horrifying, especially upon innocent civilians. Let us hope that the tense situation in Syria can be solved by diplomacy instead.
Rachel Smith
To Ed
I wasn’t saying that Gog is Russia but Magog. Firstly Magog Appears in the Table of Nations in Genesis 10. Jews in 1st century saw Magog as the Scythians north of Georgia. They may be totally wrong. It may instead talk about Chechnya or the breakaway states for the Soviet Union or something else entirely.
Gog is the title for a daemon prince, like the prince of Greece and the prince of Persia. Jews talk about the coming of the Messiah, Christians talk about the second coming. I believe the two battles are different.
Meshech and Tubal are believed to be Turkey. Turkey is turning into a Fundamental Islamic State. I can see it supporting the words of the Ezekiel.
When I see the events taking place I am amazed at how close our current situation is to these prophecies.
I thank you for challenging me. It helps us strengthen our faith and sharpen our wit. Please feel free to reply to my comments if you feel I may have made a mistake.
John McAllister
Julia Marks, would to God that you jest! Putting all La-La Land delusion aside, I, for one, will never, ever, never ever, ever, ever, forget those poor souls who went to work, thinking it would be another, par for the course, normal day…and ended up deciding they must instead jump to their death. I don’t care who thinks I’m a sicko, I watch all the 9-11 movies, documentaries, (not the wacko conspiracy ones), and jumpers clip out there twice yearly, as I have vowed never, ever, ever to forget. Thank you, Bill, and thank the Lord that there are those who yearly remind us and memorialize the lives taken and bring to the forefront the evil that is Islam. I’m not brilliant, so this isn’t MY saying…no, it comes from a movie, but there it is, (and hey, former Prez Obama, howse about YOU take a note here), with Christianity, our God did not, nor has He ever, asked US to die for HIM. Instead, He loves us first and so much that HE died FOR US! Now , THAT IS true (Agape) love.