The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.

Attributed to Edwin Burke

The terrorist attack of 9/11 on the World Trade Center had a huge transformative effect on the United States psyche in a way that prior terror attacks on her shores did not. Prior to that moment in September and now marked in history, Americans and the world had largely believed that America was impenetrable. America had been attacked before, such as during Pearl Harbor, and been able to counter-attack because it understood the implications of the Japanese actions and the Japanese mentality; they wanted power in the form of resources such as land, oil, and the ability to rule a portion of the world. However the attacks by the terrorists were very pointed and different from any other attack, and their end goal was elusive and at that moment undefinable to most Americans.

The terrorists had a viewpoint like no other prior attacker. We had been accustomed to seeing smaller scale attacks occur on the news in far off places such as Israel, but not here on our soil; in Beirut, against the U.S.S. Cole, but not here-at least not yet.  The selection of their targets were very specific to the goal of the terrorists and that was to hurt the American psyche, in ways different from Pearl Harbor. The Japanese would not be attacking inland targets such as Al-Qaeda did on 9/11. The targets, such as the Pentagon, the World Trade Center, and the White House, were all specifically chosen for their symbolic nature (epicenter of our military, commerce, and power) and the destruction of those strongholds would achieve the desired effect the terrorists wanted: to create fear and to let America and the world believe we were weak; how could so few do so much psychological harm?  Our security could not stop them and they created a perception for many that they had a long reach.

The 9/11 attack on America caused at least $10 billion in property and infrastructure damage, affected the global world market severely, closed Wall Street and created nearly 50,000 job losses in New York for months, and shut down all of our airspace. American security failed in many areas; our intelligence didn’t provide the warnings we needed, our borders and transportation were shown to be vulnerable, we didn’t have a domestic counter-terrorism program, other areas of our critical infrastructure such as nuclear plants were shown to be exposed and could be attacked or hijacked by planes, and our emergency and response teams couldn’t effectively communicate with other state or government agencies.

Until 9/11, America operated largely as a contained, Judeo-Christian country, largely unaffected by the continuous conflicts in the Middle-east by Muslims fighting Muslims. Now, America had to consider her place in the world in different terms because this enemy was positing there was a different type of God, a different way of life and they weren’t just attacking our religion (various faiths of course), wealth, our political or social system to argue the merits or failures of the entire system. The terrorists weren’t even rationale and they didn’t care to argue. The extinction of our way of life was their end goal.

The old joke goes, “When God passed out brains, I thought he said trains and so I missed mine.” Seems like these guys weren’t listening. One would think that if a group like the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) had such a brilliant idea that the people they are trying to convince would come to it without being coerced by the threat of rape, murder or torture. These are the guys who throw people off rooftops and immolate pilots. How about the brave journalists and aid workers they beheaded? I’ve always known in retail that if the salesperson is doing a hard sell, the quality of the product likely isn’t as good as what I’m being told. WHO is the stupid one here?

Walid Phares, the intellectual, Islamic studies lecturer and writer of the book Future Jihad, was contacted the day of the 9/11 attacks. He had been on the lecture circuit for years discussing how a Muslim Jihad had been ‘in the works’ for decades, but only now was the government listening. What was occurring? Who were the attackers and what did they want? The world knows now. For those of us who had been there when God passed out brains, none of this came as a surprise, and what was hidden is wide open for anyone who didn’t miss the “train”. Their goals have always been known and the Administration is standing by while it happens. The Yahdzis are brutally murdered, the women and children sold into slavery and we watch as the Kurds fight without our assistance. American mercenaries are small in number but they have a big fight in them; some have trickled into the Middle-East to fight the good fight for those who can’t. Our own military is chomping at the bit to do what rightly needs to be done.

I guess the White House regards reading Edwin Burke as too passe in this enlightened age to follow.

The 9/11 attack opened the American mind to the idea there was danger in the world and that it could come to our borders. It wasn’t rationale, didn’t want to negotiate, and the end goal wasn’t logical because it was emotionally charged and about annihilation. Whereas the Japanese, British, French or Germans throughout our wars with them might argue points or counter-points and have negotiating terms, the terrorists of the Middle-East sought nothing from us. Therefore, this made those prior terrorist attacks largely moot points in the scheme of things, and our focus should be on eschatological groups such as ISIS that is concerned with death, judgment, and the final destiny of the soul and of humankind.

The impact of 9/11 strongly affected other countries as well. Canada passed the Canadian Anti-Terrorism Act, the United Kingdom passed the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act, and New Zealand passed the Terrorism Suppression Act to make sure they were able to respond preemptively to foreign terror. But what are we doing now with the tools of our security trade? Nada. Zilch. The Administration is playing the kids game of switch. Purposely telling us we are being protected while it makes deals with Iran, letting the Middle-East fall apart, and letting the world fall apart; we are losing or have lost ground in Syria, Egypt, Yemen, Iraq and Afghanistan. A Caliphate is in the works.

The JV Team known as ISIL may be eradicated in months or years, but their way of thinking is not out of fashion in the Middle-East, and will return in another mutated form under another name; retro is back! Many wait with bated breath to see the U.S. destroyed. The terrorists of 9/11 showed the world what wicked things could be done with enough financial backing and a certain twisted mindset; will they have another go at us?

There were two ways to bring other civilizations under the pax Romana; assimilation or annihilation. Entire civilizations were destroyed as Rome moved her armies through a huge process of termination. Rome even made attempts to fairly govern the conquered and vanquished. Some of the conquered became citizens. But we are not Rome, and ISIL is not Rome. ISIL cares only for annihilation and not citizenship and under this Administration we push for assimilation and for citizenship. At some point one of these groups is going to have to change what it wants, and let me tell you folks, no one is gonna change between now and 2016. BTW, if a good man does nothing when a crime happens, what does that make him?

Today is July 4th. We celebrate it as Independence Day every 4th of July and think of it as the day of our country’s birth. It represents for many the Declaration of Independence and the birth of the United States of America as an independent nation apart from England’s rule.

We are not afraid no matter what transpires in the world. ISIS and any other group can challenge this nation and our allies. We can be weakened within our borders by a weak administration making deals with nation that would like to see us eradicated. None of what occurs on social media will deter the brave. The brave will not stand by and let our nation crumble. I am thankful on this day that I belong to a great nation. She will not give up on us and I will not give up on her.

More Americans today believe that our nation isn’t the greatest, due to how poorly this country has been savaged by our presidency, but we are still the greatest nation on earth. We are a self-reliant nation of diverse people who have opportunities to succeed no matter the race, religion, or gender.

Yes, things have changed much due to our politicians and president but there are still many who will fight the good fight and not willing to let our enemies succeed. This is evident in men and women trickling into the ISIL conflict in small numbers to help the Kurds and to fight back because our country won’t. Many in our military are standing by and waiting for a good leader who will let them do their job.

We we are the greatest nation in the world, period. We are a nation of dreamers, thinkers and doers. Why do people continue to come here? No where else in the world can people find the opportunities to have peace and prosperity that they can get here. Thank you to the men and women who work to protect America from another 9/11 and to those people in hot spots all over the world who defend our way of life that we might celebrate another 4th of July.

Thanks to those who are productive citizens and who don’t believe America owes them something. Our nation will continue to exist because it was founded on strong values and morals. Though we are in challenging times this is what makes men and women like Burke spoke of  to stand up to face evil.

He would find there are many of them here. I am still proud to be an American in the greatest country ever. Happy birthday.

“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the 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.”-Ronald Reagan