9-11: 20 Years Later - Are We Any Safer?

9-11: 20 Years Later - Are We Any Safer?

Commentary by Sanford D. Horn

August 30, 2021

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. That the longest war in United States history should come to a shocking conclusion in abject failure on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the worst terrorist attack perpetrated on American soil is beyond disappointing to the men and women who wear and have worn the uniform of the American military. In fact, it should be disappointing to all Americans.

The good intentions to which I refer are the hopes I had in writing a different column regarding the 20th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks, but it is impossible to ignore the two-ton elephant in the room - the crumbling failure in Afghanistan as after 20 years of keeping the Taliban at bay, the terror group captured the Islamic nation in less than two weeks. Afghanistan fell like a hot knife through butter. Does that make the United States any safer?

Joe Biden, in less than eight months in the White House, has become Jimmy Carter Redux, giving an entire nation a serious case of acid reflux, while all else is faltering around him - inflation on the rise, a southern border masquerading as a sieve, severe indoctrination in our public schools, creeping socialism, and a nation more divided than at any time since the War Between the States (1861-65). Biden’s absolute failure in Afghanistan is the disaster at the Bay of Pigs (Cuba 1961), the optics and the fall of Saigon (Vietnam 1975), the potentiality of a worse hostage crisis than that of Iran (1979-81), and a greater slaughter than Benghazi, all rolled into one - on steroids. Does that make the United States any safer?

Under feckless leadership, the United States is no safer, no smarter, and certainly no stronger than it was on September 10, 2001. While four presidents failed to learn from history - how the Soviets could not defeat the Afghan-Mujahideen from 1979-89, it was the ineffectiveness of Biden to extract Americans and their allies from Afghanistan in an appropriate, safe, secure manner. The incompetence of Biden, his Defense Department under General Lloyd Allen, his State Department under Antony Blinken, and his Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley has created the quagmire that is the back-asswards retreat and surrender in Afghanistan. Does that make the United States any safer?

That heads have not rolled in the form of firings and resignations, especially after the suicide bombings leaving 13 US servicemen and women slaughtered at the hands of ISIS-K is unconscionable. Biden and his minions have the blood of those brave, honorable men and women on their hands. As left wing progressives are fond of saying when wishing to honor some slain criminal, “say their names,” do just that here. Say their names:

Marine Corps Lance Cpl. David L. Espinoza, 20, Rio Bravo, TX

Marine Corps Sgt. Nicole L. Gee, 23, Sacramento, CA

Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Darin T. Hoover, 31, Salt Lake City, UT

Army Staff Sgt. Ryan C. Knauss, 23, Corryton, TN

Marine Corps Cpl. Hunter Lopez, 22, Indio, CA

Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Rylee J. McCollum, 20, Jackson, WY

Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Dylan R. Merola, 20, Rancho Cucamonga, CA

Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Kareem M. Nikoui, 20, Norco, CA

Marine Corps Cpl. Daegan W. Page, 23, Omaha, NE

Marine Corps Sgt. Johanny Rosario-Pichardo, 25, Lawrence, MA

Marine Corps Cpl. Humberto A. Sanchez, 22, Logansport, IN

Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Jared M. Schmitz, 20, St. Charles, MO

Navy Hospitalman Maxton W. Soviak, 22, Berlin Heights, OH

May their memories always be for a blessing, and may their service to a great and grateful nation not have been in vain, nor ever forgotten. 

While these 13 heroes are laid to rest back home on American soil, we recall the nearly 3,000 men, women, and children murdered on September 11, 2001. The failure of August 2021 is an insult to the memories of all those murdered on 9/11 in Manhattan, Arlington, VA, and Shanksville, PA, as well as every man and woman who has worn an American military uniform fighting the never ending war on terror.

We did not learn from history. The savage, G-dless enemy - Taliban, al-Qaeda, ISIS, ISIS-K, as well as every Muslim extremist, and every Islamic terrorist has the patience of Job, but the demonic will of Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot, - whether 20 years or 20 decades, they will wait us out, as has been evidenced in Afghanistan. Does that make the United States any safer?

The currently weak-kneed United States doesn’t have the stomach for a long drawn out military engagement - even overseas. Secretary Allen and Chairman Milley have committed their all too valuable time to testifying before Congress about white rage and racism in the US military and attempting social engineering with said military while not returning to the days when our allies could depend upon the United States and our enemies feared the United States. Does that make the United States any safer?

Today, and this will be Biden’s legacy, the United States is an undependable laughingstock overseas, and more reviled at home than ever before - including during the turbulent 1960s and the entirety of our involvement in Vietnam. Indoctrination, and now the full court press for Critical Race Theory in the classrooms, running rampant in American public schools, is at an all time high, but this did not commence yesterday. No, this has been ongoing for more than a generation - anti-American Americans who obviously never learned the history of the United States, anti-American Americans not understanding context and the tremendous progress achieved in the United States. Does that make the United States any safer?

I would trade all the US-born malcontents for the Cubans and Hong Kongers waving American flags at great personal peril to life and limb for the freedoms they so richly deserve in their homelands. The United States women’s soccer team, other Olympians who turned their backs on the American flag, who behave disrespectfully during the playing and singing of the Star Spangled Banner, and the leader of these classless snowflakes - Colin Kaepernick should try pulling that crap and living in Angola, China, Cuba, North Korea, Russia, or Venezuela. See how that works out for them. They can thank the veterans in wheelchairs who fought for those malcontents’ right to be malcontents and take a knee.

Those soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen - volunteers - who signed a blank check for up to and including the ultimate sacrifice, made their sacrifices to enable those unappreciative, ungrateful, anti-American Americans to live lives of unbridled hedonism while spitting on the memories of those who gave their all and left it all on the battlefield. Does that make the United States any safer?

The hundreds of police and firefighters who were murdered on September 11, 2001 did not stop their rescue attempts to check out the skin color of those they were rescuing. Those first responders did not ask about the race, religion, ethnic background, or sexual orientation of those rescued either. No; they plunged headfirst into danger and the face of death in efforts to serve and rescue as many people as possible.

For the 20th year we will pay homage and respect to the fallen who were murdered by Muslim extremist terrorists on that clear, crisp, Tuesday morning when the screaming airplanes permeated the sunshine, penetrated their steel and glass targets, plunging the world into darkness and chaos. 

A brief timeline of the harrowing and disturbing events of September 11, 2001:

Between 7:59 AM and 8:42 AM four flights take off from Boston’s Logan, Washington’s Dulles, and Newark airports, each headed for Los Angeles except the Newark flight, headed to San Francisco.

8:46 AM: American Airlines flight #11 is flown into #1 World Trade Center - the North Tower - by five Muslim extremist hijackers murdering the 11 crew, 76 passengers and hundreds inside the tower instantly. 

9:03 AM: United Airlines flight #175 is flown into #2 World Trade Center - the South Tower - by five Muslim extremist hijackers murdering the nine crew, 51 passengers, and hundreds inside the tower instantly. 

9:05 AM: President George W. Bush is alerted to what is now believed to be terrorist attacks. “Terrorism against our nation will not stand,” said Bush.

9:37 AM: American Airlines flight #77 is flown into the Pentagon in Arlington, VA by five Muslim extremist hijackers murdering the six crew, 53 passengers, as well as 125 military and civilian personnel on the ground. 

9:59 AM: The South Tower collapses in 10 seconds after burning 56 minutes. More than 800 civilians and first responders are murdered. 

10:03 AM: United Airlines flight #93 crashes into a field in Shanksville, PA when passengers and crew storm the cockpit. There are no survivors of the seven crew and 33 passengers due to the murderous plot by the four Muslim extremist hijackers. Flight #93 was 20 minutes from Washington, DC where the White House and/or the Capitol Building were the presumed targets. This is an example of heroism, knowingly sacrificing their lives in an effort to prevent thousands more from perishing had that plane reached its intended target.

10:15 AM: The damaged section of the Pentagon E-Ring collapses.

10:28 AM: The North Tower collapses after burning 102 minutes. More than 1,600 civilians and first responders are murdered. 

5:20 PM: World Trade Center #7 collapses. The 47 story building had already been evacuated and no fatalities are reported.

8:30 PM: President George W. Bush addresses the nation.

May the memories of the 2,977 murdered on September 11, 2001 always be for a blessing.

U.S. Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL), a Green Beret and Afghan War veteran, said “America is less safe and in a worse position than in 2001.” The US has no bases in the region, now that Biden surrendered Bagram Air Base to the Taliban. Does that make the United States any safer? 

There is not one single country surrounding Afghanistan that will allow the United States to base there or conduct intel ops. Afghanistan, population about 38 million, is surrounded by Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan to the north, Pakistan to the east and south, and Iran to the west, is roughly the size of Texas. 

Biden, and his foreign policy team of Keystone Cops, who should all be standing in the unemployment line, conducted his entire evacuation backwards. Biden was pulling troops out of Afghanistan before all Americans and SIV (Special Immigrant Visas) holders could be extracted. Biden left more than $80 billion worth of American military and technological equipment behind, abandoned the base at Agram, and surrendered the country to the Taliban - an unmitigated embarrassment. Does that make the United States any safer?

The strategy that should have been implemented, and what President Donald Trump and U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) declared they would have enacted, and what makes the most sense, was to extract all Americans and qualified allies first, demilitarize or destroy equipment unable to be removed, bomb your own bases, THEN the military turns out the lights and gets the hell out of Dodge.

As that order was not followed, when the last five American military planes took off from the Hamid Karzai Airport in Kabul on August 30, on orders from Washington, DC, some Americans and Afghan allied translators holding SIV were left behind. No additional Americans were on board any of those last five planes. Those left behind are in grave danger, as the Taliban possesses American biometric scanners, able to identify people via eyescans. Taliban terrorists are going door to door looking for Americans and their Afghan allies, and not because they are looking to take up a game of cricket. A young Afghan girl not wearing a head covering was shot and a popular Afghan folk singer was murdered for playing music. More senseless death. Pray for the women, children, teachers, and journalists that remain in Afghanistan. Does that make the United States any safer?

Ultimately, the government of the United States handed Afghanistan back to the same terror group that controlled the country on September 11, 2001 - the Taliban. It will once again become a breeding ground for al-Qaeda, ISIS-K, and Taliban terrorists. While the war in Afghanistan may be over, the war on terror most assuredly is not. The sleeper cells are awakening. With the porous southern border of the United States, not expecting terror activity in the United States would be naive. That said, our American troops fought valiantly and served honorably; it was the United States government that did not leave Afghanistan with honor. It is shameful that anyone has been left behind. Does that make the United States any safer?

The United States should take a long break from nation building and worry about fixing the myriad problems that have beset this country over the last several generations. Quite frankly, the U.S. should have left Afghanistan in 2011 following the long overdue killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. Genuine infrastructure problems need solving - crumbling roads, bridges, dams, airports, getting internet access for all Americans. Many of these projects can and should be public-private partnerships. Breaking the grip by teachers unions over American public education must be a priority, as well as keeping CRT out of the classrooms. More charter, parochial, and private schools should be created to foster a system of competition forcing schools to improve or close. Competition - the spirit of American capitalism; capitalism - the spirit of American invention, freedom, growth, and progress.

On the 20th anniversary of the terror attacks of September 11, 2001 the United States is at a crossroads, a tipping point. This is, as Ronald Reagan said in a great speech he gave in 1964, “A Time for Choosing.” Will we allow the woke anti-American Americans to turn the United States into a socialist country with a loss of the freedoms found in the Constitution - speech, religion, assembly, the right to defend oneself and one’s property? Will we continue to bow to the woke tech-corporate-media triumvirate of evil, or will we finally stand up, speak up, take back our rights, take back our country and retain our G-d given freedoms and tell the woke that they don’t speak for real Americans. Am I the only one wishing for the return to the civility that was September 12, 2001 (minus the death and destruction)? This is a time for choosing, and I choose freedom. There is a growing band of Cubans and Hong Kongers who have that spirit that once reigned in the United States. It’s time we choose to recapture that spirit and those freedoms. May G-d continue to bless these United States of America.

One of my favorite Ronald Reagan quotes is aptly appropriate here. “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. The only way they can inherit the freedom we have known is if we fight for it, protect it, defend it, and then hand it to them with the well fought lessons of how they in their lifetime must do the same. And if you and I don’t do this, then you and I may well spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it once was like in America when men were free.”

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN. He grew up in northern New Jersey in the shadow of the Twin Towers. On September 11, 2001, he was writing for a newspaper in northern Virginia, 10 minutes from the Pentagon.