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HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL Post-9/11 vocabulary test What have you learned since the Sept. 11 attacks five years ago? The mass murder of 2,996 innocent people on American soil forced open my eyes to the Islamic holy war against the West, free dom and modernity. The bat tle has raged not for years or decades, but for centuries -- well before the Crusades began. The indelible sight of workers plunging from the Twin Towers -- head first, feet first, solo, hand-in-hand roused me from slumber. The photos of children who were incinerated on United Airlines Flight 175 and American Airlines Flight 77 compelled me to start pay ing attention to the beliefs, goals, language and lies of those who would gladly kill my children the same way. The United Airlines Flight 93 hijackers’ final exclama tion as they drove the plane into the ground is a Muslim warrior leitmotif I will never again ignore: “Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar!” So, how much do you know? Take a post-9/11 pop quiz. It’s never too late to start pulling your head from the sand: Jihadis. These are our enemies - from Mohammed Atta and company to the Butchers of Beslan, to the throat-slitters in Karachi and Baghdad and Mindanao, to the bombers of Bali, Madrid and London, to their funders and imams and enablers worldwide. They are not “freedom fighters” or “militants” or “rebels” or “evildoers” of unknown geo graphic and religious affili ation. Apologists claim “jihad” means a peaceful Muslim striving for spiritual perfec tion. But the late Ayatollah Khomeini rebuked Religion of Peace propagandists back in 1942: “Those who know nothing of Islam pretend that Islam counsels against Five years after we were attacked by Al-Qaida On Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaida’s terrorist hijackers implement ed a well-designed plan. Al- Qaida’s planners and hijack ers also counted on a little luck. The 9-11 commission dem onstrated the U.S. intelli gence and law enforcement agencies had traces and hints of the plan, but failed to see the larger patterns. Still, an insightful, imaginative ana lyst might have made the intuitive leap and guessed al-Qaida intended to turn commercial aircraft into sui cide ICBMs. Al-Qaida took the chance its evil design was simply too outrageous for imaginations pinned by bureaucratic regimens. Al-Qaida also relied on American lassitude. Al- Qaida had declared war on America, but America ignored it. Americans sim ply didn’t want to be dis tracted from their pursuit of happiness. Al-Qaida’s 9- 11 hijackers would leverage American complacency and exploit America’s freedom of movement to board aircraft. Al-Qaida also relied, to a degree, on cowardice. Al-Qaida’s own agit-prop interpretation of the U.S. withdrawal from Somalia in 1993 gave it confidence in American cowardice. Al-Qaida’s May 24, 1994, “Third Letter to Africa Corps” said: “The Somali experience confirmed the spurious nature of American power and that it has not recovered from the Vietnam complex. It fears getting bogged down in a real war that would reveal its psycho logical collapse at the level of personnel and leader.” But 9-11 revealed a heroic America, with the pinnacle of heroism the self-sacrifice of Flight 93. The passen gers on Flight 93 confronted the hijackers. Passengers learned their jetliner had become a terrorist ICBM, and they counterattacked. Flight 93 crashed, but it did not strike its ground target. Flight 93’s counterattack war. Those (who say this) are witless.” Egyptian-born Nonie Darwish, an ex-Muslim whose father founded the ter rorist Fedayeen in Gaza and killed 400 Israelis, had her own recent rejoinder for the p.c. white washers who have redefined jihad as a kinder, a Michelle Malkin Columnist gentler struggle: “In the Arab world we were only taught one meaning for Jihad, and that is: A religious holy war against infidels and armed struggle against anyone who is not a Moslem.” Infidels I Kafirs. Anyone who is not a Muslim. Sharia. This is the set of Islamic legal principles and traditions that our enemies seek to impose on us. It’s a path that leads inexora bly to the subjugation of women, stoning of adulter ers, “honor killings” of rape victims, bans on beauty pag eants, cinema and the view ing of soccer matches, death threats against authors, filmmakers, cartoonists and apostates who renounce Islam, and calls for behead ings of all who insult their faith. Caliphate. A Muslim world government ruled according to sharia. It is what American al Qaeda Adam Gadahn envisions in his latest “Convert or die” propaganda video when he asserts, “Islam is the only religion acceptable to God,” and “God recognizes no sep aration between religion and state.” It is the dream not just of Osama bin Laden, but of Islamic imperialists throughout history. Taqiyya. Religious decep tion. Jihadists are taught in al Qaeda training manuals to lie. To fabricate tales about is the moment al-Qaida’s luck began to sour. That’s the moment America went on the offensive, against al- Qaida and the dysfunctional political systems that helped create it. Al-Qaida’s “Afghanistan trap” failed. Afghanistan was designed to be the bat tle that launched Osama bin Laden’s “globalized war of Islam against America.” A U.S. military defeat in the Himalayas would signal “Divine Sanction” for al Qaida’s project, and make al-Qaida a global power within Islam. American victories on Afghan battle fields muted mjjg| Austin Bay Military Affairs Creators Syndicate the notion God was on al- Qaida’s side. And America has contin ued to have success. It may not look that way, for the “metrics” in the War on Terror don’t conform to World War 11-type shifts in geographic frontlines and casualty counts, but in the midst of WWII the metrics of battles and miles also lacked certainty. “Asymmetric” war has “asymmetric” metrics. One PET PLANTATION ** FUNERAL HOME & CREMATORY | taerett Road at Houston Lake 971-4112 how their captors treat them (see Gitmo). To lie in claim ing “There is no compulsion in religion” while forcing conversions at gunpoint (see the “Holy Jihad Brigades” conversion video starring Fox News journalists Steve Centanni and Olaf Wiig). To conceal their true mission (see hijackers’ visa applica tions). Dissimulation for the sake of Islam is sanctioned by the Koran. Dhimmitude. The offi cial state of inferiority of non-Muslims under Islam; the bowing and scraping of vanquished infidels to their intellectual and military conquerors. You saw it in the immediate post-9/11 appease ment of Muslims angered by the name “Operation Infinite Justice” (it was an insult to Mohammed). You saw it in the cowards of the mainstream media unwill ing to defend free speech during the Mohammed cartoon rage. You saw it in the mau-mauing over the faked Koran-flushings at Camp Delta. You see it in our government’s persis tent pandering to grievance mongering groups yelling “Islamophobia” and filing lawsuits at every turn. You see it in the refusal to profile at the airport, limit immigration from terrorist enabling countries and shut down Saudi pilot training programs even to this day - for fear of hurting feelings. You will see it throughout the week-long commemora tion of 9/11 as pundits and scholars de-emphasize the jihadi roots of the terror ist attacks in favor of “dia logue” and “tolerance” and self-flagellation. Submitting to ignorance is submitting to defeat. Honor the victims of 9/11 by mak ing a pledge: “I will not sub mit.” Michelle Malkin is author of the new book ‘‘Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild. ” Her e-mail address is malkin@comcast.net. measure is the lack of a sec ond 9-11 on U.S. soil. We’ve indications al-Qaida and its affiliates have tried. We’ve experienced minor ter ror attacks - for example, the “sudden jihadi” who smashed his car into pass ersbys in North Carolina. Islamo-fascist terrorists have murdered en masse from Bali to Madrid, but there’s been no second 9- 11 in America. Perhaps Rickey’s residue has played a part, but we’ve also got ten smarter. It’s not simply the inspection regimen. The passengers know the stakes, and the passengers are at war. American-led offensive action has also taken the war to its source: the politically dysfunctional Middle East. That’s by design. A terrible yin-yang of tyranny and ter ror afflicts the Middle East. Defeatist hotheads who nat ter about “root causes of terror” must understand the taproot of terror is tyranny, not poverty. Iraq’s free elections and its new democratic govern ment - by design - offer an alternative to the tyrants’ and the terrorists’ violent dynamic. Sept. 11 was an “asymmetric” terror attack on a “conventional” America. Iraq is “asymmetric” offen sive political action led by America, an offensive See BAT,page 6B E JWr "H. mmfr .» ( LOCAL Remembering five years ago As I write this, I have just been watching coverage of the fifth anniversary of the 9-11 attacks. My mind is full of the images and the stories of that day. Memories are a wonder ful gift, and such an impor tant part of healing and recovery, even when the memories hurt. I know that through the toughest or most important moments of my life, it has helped me to mentally relive those times. The reliving is both thera peutic and shaping, as it helps give new perspecitve based on what I have lived through since then. My memores of Sept. 11, 2001 involve children. I was teaching a class of four year olds. After we found out at the school about the attacks on the World Trade Center - with us teachers tak ing turns going into an empty classroom to catch a glimpse of the coverage on TV - it was surreal to walk back into the class- room and try to carry on as normal. This wasn’t something you could go in and announce to a bunch of kindergarteners: “Your world has just changed and you didn’t even real ize it as you played and colored.” Eventually all we could do in our numbed states was let them go outside and play. The bright blue sky and the clinking of the chains on the swing set were in stark contrast to the confusion felt by the adults in charge. Parents came earlier than normal to wait in line to pick up their children, and I left as soon as I could load up my students to go and All-You-Can-Eat Shrimp-$10 9S /Catfish-$9 35 Friday & Saturday - spm -10 pm areenderbv VlszllJiSSllV. 1-78 Exit 136 • M 7-8877 ill §& tt 4# Ii 4 4*l 4*? '4# W' - I ' : j j I fjjf [if! . II 1 '.. :|9 i/' f' - / 1 r— t /\ /v A r<nrtl /***“'* V _ \ v / \ Vv B 11 n } ' Chevy - Pontiac - Buick CMC Bxii 1 34 Off 1-75. Perrv. GA» 478-987-2 i 22 * 1 -800-992-294 i wrap my arms around my son, then just a little over a year old. One thing I do remember from being in that class room is thinking that I had to help teach those children to love and not to hate; it was the only way I could think at that time to com bat such acts of atrocity. I remember being glued to the television, and the feel ing of anxious anticipation each morning in the weeks 4 Sherri Martin The Front Porch What had happened in the world over the night? That is a feeling that lingers. 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(478)923-4111 TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2006 ♦ in Washington, D.C. at the time, and said that from then on she would just share my birthday - the next day. It’s sometimes hard to believe that five years have passed. Of course, life goes on. We can’t constantly live in the past because it’s not healthy or constructive. Still, I read accounts of the experiences of those who were there that day, or who lost loved ones when the towers fell. Their mem ories add to mine and give me a broader knowledge of the whole experience. What I write is nothing new about the day, and noth ing profound either. Yet my memories are important to me, just as others’ memo ries of any tragic event are important to them. They make up the tap estries of our lives, let us know where we’ve been, and give us an idea of where we’re going. Even when the world changes in the blink of an eye. that fol lowed, wonder ing what horror would greet me when I first turned on the televi sion. Lin* Ad. 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