September 11: Gratitude and Cold Revenge

It seems somethings always require an acknowledgment and obligatory post. Today is one of those days. It remains an obligatory post because we are still at war with the same people who attacked us.

I am reminded how I felt that day. I was mad as hell. The kind of mad that makes you do crazy things and hurt people, even those you wouldn't normally consider responsible, just because it would have felt good to harm a proxy for the S.O.B.s that actually did the damage.

Today, I'm still angry, but it is not the hot anger of youth and inexperience. It is the cold anger that takes pleasure in the thought of the ultimate destruction, not just of bin Laden or Al Qaeda, but any plans they have to institute the caliphate or any other form of Islamic State Utopia that these people want to institute.

It is the cold, calculating revenge that makes me contemplate, not just the destruction of such plans, but, in fact, the enacting of the very thing such ideologues as Qtub, Zawahiri and bin Laden have complained about and feared: the infiltration of American ideas, American commerce and American culture into the heart of Islam.

As much as Bin Laden thinks that he has had some effect on the American way of life and touts such things as mortgage rates and global warming as some sort of claim to the Islamist success, the truth of the matter is, these are blips on the screen. Financial ups and downs come and go. We are no where near collapse. In fact, war time economies are often and historically strong. Global warming will go the way of the "next ice age" claims from decades past. To quote Revelations: all these things will pass away.

But, real and profound changes have been wrought and continue to be wrought upon Muslim nations. Kuwait gave women the vote and Saudi Arabia instituted local elections. Saddam is long gone and Al Qaeda's Islamic Caliphate has been rejected by the first to have to live under it: the Sunni Muslim Iraqis. Lebanon is free and the Palestinians are too busy fighting over who should be in power rather than fighting the Israelis. The only people who are even partly effective in that war are Shia Hezbollah in south Lebanon. These are the same people who outed Al Qaeda's proxies, Fatah al Islam, in Lebanon. Even they didn't want any part of that.

Still, my favorite revenge is the revenge that Osama sought himself. Before Zarqawi died, a video showed him trying to fire a weapon. The most important aspect of the video wasn't his inability to fire the weapon, but was, in fact, Zarqawi wearing a brand new pair of American Tennis Shoes.

The significance of this was and is lost on some. The truth is, there are no Muslim, Arab tennis shoes. At least, none that the takfiri mufsidoon would be caught dead wearing. And while they tout their use of our resources against us, every day, somewhere in the hinterlands of Pakistan, in the deserts of Saudi Arabia and the urban streets of the Gulf States, Muslims are using American made or American created products. They aren't creating or using their own. Even takfiri terrorist propaganda videos made by terrorists are created on American invented and created computers, with American software and transferred via American internet.

These are facts that are indisputable: Islam and Arabs have yet to and probably never will create anything worth as much or anywhere as useful. Further, those very machines, software and services that they believe they are using against us are equally and regularly sending images, words and ideas around the globe, into Islamic countries everywhere.

The young, who may make up the "martyrs" are actually very small compared to the young who still live, are educated and enjoy some sort of American related life. Music videos, cars, clothes, movies: you name it, it is there and the best part of it is bin Laden can blabber his BS propaganda, but it doesn't change the facts: they cannot change the wheels of progress. change is inevitable.

While the US may change in some ways, the most profound change is taking place over there. If it wasn't, AQ and their affiliates wouldn't fight so hard.

It is the long term, distant future of free, democratic nations in the middle east, full of people drinking, smoking and having sex while contemplating their next vote that serves our revenge the best. Those changes, already coming, will be more profound than any AQ could possibly inflict on the United States.

It is the thought of this future that appeases my anger enough to allow me to enjoy the thought of the final revenge: not only will AQ and Osama be defeated, but the entire Islamic ideology will be rejected.

Someday it will be in the dust pan of history along with the rest of the evil, murderous, totalitarian ideologies.

The thought of young Muslim men ogling Britney Spears while sipping on a Pepsi in a red, white and blue can while smoking a cigarette and contemplating the bottle of whiskey they will buy just warms the heart. It may start out "slow" as Arab Muslims travel to the newly liberated Iraq for business or vacation where they will experience all the joys of democracy: alcohol, tobacco, rich foods, unveiled women and a chance to say whatever is on their minds without fear of persecution. That will bleed over and back into their home nations. They can't help it.

It will be in the way they walk, talk, dress and eat. They will learn it through osmosis.

As for other "profound" changes, I can honestly say that it did change me: for the good. I don't take freedom and democracy lightly anymore. I re-learned some history. I've read books by great thinkers on the subject and have experienced the great advantages of our society. Far from discouraging me, the attacks on 9/11 made me a true believer.

For that and the chance to savor the long term revenge planned, I am grateful. For giving me the opportunity to serve my nation in small ways and large, I am grateful. For making me look on the internet only to discover blogs and promptly start my own to add to the "market place of ideas", I am grateful.

There were great changes, but I doubt they were the bin Laden and Company expected.