IDF Recovers Bodies of Six More Hostages

IDF Recovers Bodies of Six More Hostages
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
September 1, 2024

With much sadness, but little surprise, the deaths of six hostages held in Gaza, including one American, are confirmed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), as reported on Fox News, and in The Epoch Times. It is believed Hamas murdered the hostages within the past day or two, also according to the IDF.

The six most recently murdered hostages include Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, kidnapped by Islamic extremist terrorist group Hamas from the Nova music festival in southern Israel last October 7. Goldberg-Polin attended the music festival with friends in celebration of his birthday. The other five murdered hostages are Master Sergeant Ori Danino, 25, Carmel Gat, 40, Alex Lubnov, 32, Almog Sarusi, 25, and Eden Yerushalmi, 24.

Goldberg-Polin’s parents, Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg, spoke on August 21, Day Three of the Democrat National Convention. “This is a political convention. But needing our only son - and all of the cherished hostages - home, is not a political issue. It is a humanitarian issue,” said an impassioned Polin.

This tragic news broke on Sunday morning, 330 days following the October 7, 2023 Hamas invasion of Israel, the slaughter of more than 1,400 people, and the kidnapping of 250 men, women, and children ranging in ages from, on that date, a few months to over 85 years of age. Of the eight Americans among the hostages, at least four are known dead. The status of more than 100 hostages, including up to four Americans, remains unknown. What is known, is that the IDF recovered the bodies of the six murdered hostages from an underground tunnel in Khan Yunis, Gaza. This is a tunnel the IDF recently captured from Hamas in Rafah. 

“A few hours ago, we informed the families that the bodies of their loved ones had been located by IDF troops in an underground tunnel in Rafah. According to our initial assessment, they were brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists shortly before we reached them,” said IDF spokesperson Admiral Daniel Hagari.

Hamas is responsible for the October 7 invasion of Israel and the massacre of more than 1,400 innocent men, women, and children - the largest massacre of Jewish people in a singular incident since the Holocaust of World War II where the Nazis murdered more than six million Jews. Hamas didn’t simply murder more than 1,400 people, they recorded many of their atrocities including the rape of women and children, the slaughter of children in front of their parents - only to murder the parents, the burning alive of children, also in front of their parents before murdering the parents.

Included in the October 7 massacre by Hamas were more than 200 people from foreign countries outside of Israel, most of whom carried dual citizenship with Israel. The following countries lost the denoted number of nationals - murdered at the hands of Hamas, according to The Times of Israel: France (35), Thailand (33), United States (31), Ukraine (21), Russia (19), United Kingdom (12), Germany (10), Nepal (10), Argentina (9), Canada (6), Romania (5), Austria, China, Philippines, Portugal (4 each), Belarus, Brazil, Italy, Peru (3 each), South Africa (2), and Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Spain, Turkey (1 each). Most of these same countries had or still have hostages held by Hamas of indeterminate numbers.

Addressing his nation, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “Whoever murders hostages does not want a deal,” in Hebrew.

Both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris expressed their outrage regarding the murder of the six hostages by Hamas. “It is as tragic as it is reprehensible. Make no mistake, Hamas leaders will pay for these crimes. And we will keep working around the clock for a deal to secure the release of the remaining hostages,” said Biden. Quite frankly, for a  man who has been AWOL from the White House the past two weeks, Biden’s words ring hollow. How will he make the Hamas leaders pay for their crimes? He has done nothing since October 8.

Harris’s words carry no more confidence than Biden’s. “I strongly condemn Hamas’ continued brutality, and so must the entire world. As Vice President, I have no higher priority than the safety of American citizens, wherever they are in the world,” said Harris.

Yet, it continues to be the feckless “leadership” of the Biden-Harris administration that emboldens not just Hamas, but Hezbollah, another Islamic extremist terrorist group, to continue their bombings and shootings in their attempts to destroy Israel, the world’s lone Jewish nation on the planet. They have attempted to handcuff Israel at every turn in an attempt to secure a ceasefire, which will only make the administration look good, keep Hamas alive and breathing, without making Israel one bit more secure.

Biden and Harris have blood on their hands. While attempting to walk both sides of the street in telling Israel how they have the right to defend themselves, as if Israel needs permission from anyone as an independent sovereign nation, Biden and Harris are also attempting to placate the Hamas wing of their Democrat Party. The ever-growing radical, far-left of the Democrat Party, thousands of whom voted uncommitted during the primaries, have not only demanded an immediate ceasefire since October 8, but don’t even support the right of Israel to exist - taking their marching orders from Hamas and Hezbollah, who in turn are taking their marching orders from the Islamic Republic of Iran. This is the same Iran that during the Trump administration, could not lift a finger against either the US or Israel. Now, thanks to Biden and Harris’s funding of Iran and lifting of sanctions against Iran, has returned the Islamic Republic to its former strength in efforts to build nuclear weaponry to be used against the “Great Satan,” and the “Little Satan.”

Both Biden and Harris continue talking out of both sides of their mouths. Calling for an immediate ceasefire since October 8 supports Hamas, gives Hamas new life, while endangering Israel further. Telling Israel they have the right to defend itself, while also demanding Israel exercise caution and limit their response to the terrorism intended to end the very existence of Israel, certainly is not terribly supportive.

Harris in particular has demonstrated more support for Hamas and the Palestinians by approving the pro-Hamas, anti-Israel, antisemitic rallies, marches, and violence on myriad American college campuses since October 8. Harris has repeatedly said she understands the outrage of their venomous and criminal behavior. She has, on numerous occasions, relied upon statistics provided by Hamas in condemning Israel for the alleged number of Palestinians killed since the Hamas invasion of Israel and slaughter of 1,400 Israelis. The sad reality is Hamas hides among its own people, intentionally putting them in harm’s way and actually killing many of their own people in an effort to curry global support via the media. Hamas, receiving 80 percent of the vote among the Gazans for Hamas to be the elected rulers of Gaza, in addition to hiding among their own people, hides and stores their weaponry in elementary schools, hospitals, residences, and yes, even mosques. 

Additionally, Biden and Harris accuse Israel of withholding food and medical supplies from the people of Gaza, when in reality it is Hamas that hijacks the thousands of trucks rolling into Gaza, and keeps those supplies from their own people, starving them and allowing them to die.

Harris has specifically warned Israel against moving on Rafah, which would be strategically important for Israel to end the war sooner rather than later. “We have been clear in multiple conversations and in every way, that any major military operation in Rafah would be a huge mistake,” said Harris on ABC, on March 24. Is she dictating to Israel? And let’s not forget, Harris, the sitting vice president seeking a promotion this November, boycotted PM Netanyahu’s address before Congress in July.

Biden and Harris simply want to end the war. Israel wants and must win the war. There is an enormous difference. Ending the war allows Hamas to live another day and continue its terror campaign in its effort to eliminate the only Jewish nation on the planet. Winning the war allows Israel to exist, and its people to live and thrive peacefully. Hamas is a terrorist organization hell bent on ending the existence of Israel and killing the Jewish people, while Israel is a legitimate sovereign nation. Hamas and Israel should under no circumstance ever be equated with one another. The fact is, if Hamas puts down their weapons, there will be no more war. If Israel puts down its weapons, there will be no more Israel. May the memories of the hostages forever be for a Blessing.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.

Bellows Bars Trump from Ballot in Maine

Bellows Bars Trump from Ballot in Maine
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
December 29, 2023

If four Colorado state Supreme Court justices was not a small enough number of unelected individuals to determine who an entire state should have the right for whom to vote, try one. Yes, in the state of Maine, one person, one person unelected by popular vote, the state secretary of state, unilaterally determined that the entire voting population of the Pine Tree State should be prevented from casting their ballot in their upcoming primary for former President Donald Trump. 

Shenna Bellows, Maine’s secretary of state, singularly disqualified Trump, pending appeal, from appearing on the March 5, 2024 primary ballot. “I likewise conclude that Mr. Trump was aware of the likelihood for violence and at least initially supported its use given he both encouraged it with incendiary rhetoric and took no timely action to stop it,” wrote Bellows in her statement on Thursday, December 28.

Trump has five days to challenge the Bellows decision in Maine Superior Court. His campaign already announced the forthcoming challenge.

Bellows must be clairvoyant,  citing her conclusion “Trump was aware… ” Does Bellows know what’s in the head or on the mind of the former president? She based her disqualification on a feeling, without any discernible evidence, and without either a charge or conviction of Trump of any lawbreaking. This flimsy case to remove Trump from the primary ballot in Maine is about as solid as a house of cards in front of an oscillating fan.

Bellows, a solid partisan Democrat who served in the Maine state senate before the state legislature selected her to be secretary of state, is not an attorney. She also served as one of the three Biden electors for the presidential election of 2020, and can be seen looking very chummy with Biden in a photo taken in March of this year. What is evident, is a pure case of election interference and the disenfranchisement of more than 832,000 registered voters in the state of Maine. (www.worldpopulationreview.com)

Yet, on Friday, December 29, the very next morning, Bellows suspended her ruling, pending the appeal by the Trump campaign, saying she doesn’t have the power to remove a candidate from the ballot. Her ruling is stayed until a ruling by the Maine Supreme Court.

Bellows, as also cited in the Colorado case, referenced Section 3 of the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution as the rationale behind her decision to exclude Trump from the primary ballot. Yet many, including legal expert Alan Dershowitz, noted Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which references “insurrection or rebellion,” had the intent of keeping former members of the Confederacy from the War Between the States from serving in elected office. 

“It’s clearly unconstitutional. The Constitution provides for the disqualification of those who fought in the Civil War. Now Trump’s old, but not old enough to have fought in the Civil War…. I’m not a Trump supporter, but I want the right to vote against Trump, just like you have the right to vote for Trump, and that right can’t be denied us by a Colorado court, or a Michigan court, or by any court. It’s just not the way the Constitution operates,” said Dershowitz, professor emeritus at Harvard Law School.

And while the word “insurrection” from Section 3 of the 14th Amendment is bandied about so freely, and Trump has neither been charged with, or convicted of such, that same passage also says “or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.” In that case, why not disqualify Joe Biden from appearing on ballots for giving aid and comfort to enemies of the United States on at least three counts. Biden gave the Islamic Republic of Iran $16 billion, which has freed up the same amount to be used for expanding its potential nuclear capability - the likes of which has been threatened against the United States (the big satan) and Israel (the little satan). Biden has sold off oil reserves to the Chinese Communist Party, while Americans are being hammered at gas pumps all across the nation. Biden’s disastrous open border policy has allowed eight to 10 million illegal aliens into the United States, unvetted, of no known status, and a number of known terrorists have been captured. But, how many of the “got-aways” are terrorists plotting nefarious acts inside the borders of the United States?

Yet, neither Trump nor Biden have been charged or convicted. “If no convictions are required under Shenna Bellows’ rules then that’s why this is such a dangerous game she’s created,” said John Andrews, a Republican state representative. “She opened the door to election chaos. Even extremely progressive Democrat Jared Golden (ME-2) said she’s in the wrong, that he doesn’t like Trump, but he should be on the ballot. I applaud him for saying that because he’s correct; it’s the right move,” said Andrews.

In other words, before jumping to Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, don’t skip over Section 1. “...nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” Due process. How about that?

Due process may have been in the back of Bellows’ mind when tweeting the following on January 4, 2022: “The fundamental right of any American citizen to vote freely, fairly and to have their vote counted is the premise of our democracy. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights are not values to be compromised away. #FreedomToVoteAct” But somehow, she hypocritically forgot her own words - and smart words at that, when determining unilaterally, that the former president should not appear on Maine ballots. Bellows, a former executive director with the Maine ACLU, and a potential candidate for governor in 2026, seems more than a bit power hungry.

This sort of megalomania is being exhibited in 13 additional states who have lawsuits to bar Trump from their ballots: Alaska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. Republicans are almost certain to carry Alaska, South Carolina, Texas, West Virginia, and Wyoming. That’s 58 potential electoral votes Trump would be excluded from garnering, and an almost certain defeat at the polls.

Attempts to remove Trump are “the M.O. of the Democrat elite,” said former US Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, adding that these kinds of tactics are just one reason she left the Democrat Party.  “They will stop at nothing to try and maintain their power even if it means taking away the right to vote of Americans. There’s no issues taking Trump off the ballot. They have no issue in pursuing him, persecuting him through a weaponized and politicized Department of Justice. It’s ridiculous that we’re having this conversation here in the United States of America, when I have heard and seen how the warhawks in Washington - they will see this happen in other countries. They’ll be very quick to say, we must go and intervene, we must go and topple this banana republic or the dictatorship. Many of these same people are the people who are driving this. It’s not just Democrats. There are Republicans who are threatened by President Trump’s unwillingness to buy into their establishment ways,” said Gabbard.

Yet, even in a state as liberal as California, the secretary of state, Shirley N. Weber announced that President Trump will appear on the Golden State’s primary ballots. Michigan and Minnesota previously announced likewise. These left of center states understand what is at stake - making sure the voters, the people for whom the politicians work, have the greatest access possible to support the candidates of their choice.

This is not about liking Trump or disliking Trump. Nor is this about liking Biden or disliking Biden. This is about the will of the people to freely choose their elected officials, whether for president, the Senate, the House of Representatives, or any office down ballot to the candidates for the school board. For a single individual, or the slimmest majority of a state court to determine for millions of voters for whom they should be allowed to vote, is the kind of dangerous precedent seen in places like the Chinese Communist Party, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and Russia, where roughly two dozen potential opponents to Vladimir Putin have been squelched from the ballot.

It is imperative for the United States Supreme Court to step up with a unanimous nine to nothing vote denying the states the ability to keep a presidential candidate off the ballot when there is no legal reason to do so. Anything short of total unanimity will send the wrong message. That a divided court, even at eight to one, leaves open the door for the possibility that a future court, one that leans in a different direction, will determine states can willy-nilly bar a candidate from its ballot in an effort to remain in power. This would be a most dangerous precedent, from which there is no turning back, and this republic would cease to exist. 

When the voters lose their right to choose, which is sacrosanct, the nation loses itself, giving way to despots and dictators the likes of which have been seen in the Chinese Communist Party, Cuba, the Islamic Republic of Iran, North Korea, Syria, and Venezuela. When the United States of America ceases to be that “shining city on a hill,” that beacon of hope for the truly oppressed, when people lose their freedoms of speech and religion, their right to peacefully protest their government, we become those other despotic regimes and the world as we know it, is damned. As we head into 2024, let’s fight like hell, in unison - Democrats, Republicans, Independents, even the apathetic who don’t vote, to maintain the freedoms we cherish, and remember the words of the 40th president.

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it along to our children in our bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.” - President Ronald Reagan.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.

Drill in Texas, Don't Deal with Tehran

Drill in Texas, Don’t Deal with Tehran
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
March 17, 2022

When President Donald Trump’s term expired and Joe Biden moved into the White House, inflation sat at a reasonable 1.4 percent. Today, after Biden has been in the White House a mere 14 months, inflation has skyrocketed to a terribly uncomfortable 7.9 percent. This is not on Trump; this is not even on Vladimir Putin. This is on Biden and his failing economic policies.

When President Donald Trump’s term expired and Joe Biden moved into the White House, the national average gas price was an almost livable $2.39 per gallon. Fourteen months later, the national average gas price rose to a nearly bankrupting $4.29 per gallon as of March 17, 2022, according to AAA. This is not on Trump; this is not on Putin. Gas prices have increased 48 percent under Biden prior to the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine by the megalomaniacal Putin. This is on Biden, as he is beholden to the Green Energy Mafia. 

The now three week long, and growing, war against Ukraine by Russia and the despotic war criminal Vladimir Putin is not the root cause of the rise in gas prices. That falls on Biden, for on Day One of his term he shuttered the Keystone XL Pipeline and any other domestic source of energy he could thwart. Biden’s orders negatively impacted ANWR (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) and the freezing of other federal leases, yet waived sanctions on Putin’s pipeline, thus adding funding to his war machine.

The United States moved, rather rapidly, from being energy independent to energy dependent, and Biden is on the verge of going on bended knee to Iran, Saudi Arabia, or Venezuela for gas/oil. Depending on the source of information, the United States had imported two to seven percent of its gas/oil from Russia - which will cease, as per Biden’s announcement on Tuesday, March 8. Out of the frying pan and into the fire goes Biden and his administration seeking to do business with the Marxists of Venezuela - a country the United States does not even recognize officially; the Islamists of Saudi Arabia; or the jihadists of Iran, who are mere steps away from finalizing their nuclear bomb, undoubtedly to be aimed at Israel.

The solution is simple. “Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less,” as former House Speaker Newt Gingrich wrote in his 2008 book. The message of energy independence still applies, now more than ever before.

Biden must reauthorize the Keystone XL Pipeline, he must reauthorize drilling leases in ANWR, and throughout North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Texas. The United States should be pumping gas and oil that comes out of Texas, not Tehran. American gas/oil is cleaner than that which comes from Russia. By allowing the United States to return to the days of energy independence as was enjoyed under Trump, the US is also able to help European countries wean themselves off of Putin’s dirty, war-supported, Russian gas/oil - and at lower prices. Win-win - for both the United States and for the nations that should separate themselves from Russian energy and being beholden to the egomaniacal Putin, who is intentionally targeting children hunkering down in school basements, as well as pregnant women, also hiding in basements - maternity hospital basements.

Based upon information from these five sources, this is the percent range of gas/oil the following countries procure from Russia.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/katharinabuchholz/2022/01/28/which-european-countries-depend-on-russian-gas-infographic/?sh=b091867d2aa0 (Forbes)

http://www.gasprocessingnews.com/features/201906/the-insoluble-equation-how-to-balance-europe%E2%80%99s-natural-gas-supply-and-demand.aspx (Gas Processing & LNG)

https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/2i7cri/eu_dependence_on_russian_natural_gas/ (Congressional Research Service)

www.eia.gov (US Energy Information Administration)

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1201743/russian-gas-dependence-in-europe-by-country/ (Statista)

Austria………………………………… 52-100 percent

Belarus…………………………………99

Belgium……………………………….. 23-43 

Bosnia and Herzegovina……………. 99-100

Bulgaria……………………………….. 77-100

Croatia………………………………… 37-68

Cyprus………………………………… 0

Czech Republic………………………. 63-81

Denmark………………………………. 15

Estonia………………………………… 34-100

Finland………………………………… 80-100

France………………………………… 17-24

Georgia………………………………… 6

Germany………………………………. 30-58

Greece…………………………………. 51-58

Hungary………………………………… 40-100

Ireland………………………………….. 0

Italy……………………………………… 20-46

Latvia……………………………………. 93-100

Lithuania………………………………… 41-100

Luxembourg……………………………. 28

Malta……………………………………..  0

Moldova…………………………………. 100

Netherlands…………………………….. 5-11

North Macedonia………………………. 100

Norway………………………………….. 25-99

Poland…………………………………… 40-72

Portugal…………………………………. 0

Romania………………………………… 10-24

Serbia…………………………………… 89-99

Slovakia…………………………………. 63-74

Slovenia…………………………………. 40-57

Spain…………………………………….. 11

Sweden………………………………….. 100

Turkey…………………………………… 21-52

United Kingdom…………………………. 0

Hardly anyone with any sense of reality expects Biden to return the United States to the path of energy independence. After all, he’s to blame for the current fix this nation currently suffers. But, this is a midterm election year, and reaching out to the various members of Congress, might move the needle in the right direction. Hold them accountable. Remember, they work for the citizenry of the United States, not the other way around.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.

Biden is No Help to Zelensky

Biden is No Help to Zelensky

Commentary by Sanford D. Horn

March 16, 2022

Following Volodymyr Zelensky’s impassioned speech before the United States Congress on Wednesday morning, came Joe Biden’s anemic and tepid response. Joe Biden's words are empty and hollow at best. Volodymyr Zelensky, an actual leader, should not count on any serious aid from the United States.

Zelensky is not asking for American boots on the ground. Give him what he wants - it's for the betterment of the entire region. Consider the neighboring countries like Poland (1.8 million), Romania 453,000), Moldova (337,000), Hungary (264,000), and Slovakia (213,000) that have stepped up welcoming more than three million refugees into their lands, as well as providing material aid into Ukraine, as of Tuesday, March 15. (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-60555472) 

Clearly this is not a Republican or Democrat argument as Congress approved $13 billion in aid to Ukraine, but the feckless Biden has only authorized $800 million of that money to aid Ukraine, less than seven percent of that which was approved. Biden is a coward, unable or unwilling to do what is right for fear of Putin, while Zelensky, a true hero to his people and beyond, is on the front lines every day. He could have escaped Ukraine, but willingly chose to stay and lead his nation.

This is yet another Biden Blunder on the international stage. His disastrous so-called exit strategy from Afghanistan, handled with all the competence of a one-armed paper hanger, cost 13 members of the United States military their lives, and the abandonment of roughly $85 billion in military materials to our enemies, the Taliban. Meanwhile, Biden is searching the couch cushions for nickels to give to Ukraine, a nation in desperate need of genuine assistance.

This is quintessential Biden - half a century of living on the wrong side of history.

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.

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.