Never forget 9/11? Yeah, right!

It's early in the morning and I might get in trouble for this post, but I have to write down my general impressions on this the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

Normally, I'm a pretty optimistic guy. I've studied and seen alot of history in my 40-odd years on this earth, and it's given me perspective to make it through the difficult times. But my optimism has been failing me of late as I watch the bed-wetting and hand-wringing going on in America today.

Take the 9/11 ceremonies, for example. Instead of using the shock and anger over 9/11 to galvanize the American public to finish the job against Islamic extremism, they probably will devolve into an Oprah-like sobfest of victimhood that will eventually undercut America's will. Our resolve after today will not be "Never again" but instead "Never forget", in the sense we'll never be able to move on, never be able to get over how awful the day was and never be able to stop hearing how so-and-so can't sleep or so-and-so has flashbacks from watching TV or how we shouldn't see such images because they're too disturbing or might make some nut so angry that he writes impolite graffiti on the local mosque.

For Americans of my father's generation, remembering Pearl Harbor was an exercise in renewing their resolve to win; for Americans today, remembering 9/11 is an exercise in group therapy.

Think I'm exaggerating? Hardly. If current polls are to be believed, a solid majority of Americans are willing to cut and run from Iraq just because things aren't going perfectly there. We flinch at casualty numbers that during the Viet Nam war would have been cause for celebration in the streets. We seem to have allowed ourselves to be convinced that if we just give up there, the terrorists will leave us alone elsewhere.

(Particularly laughable is the Democrat's assertion that if they were in power, they'd put our troops in Afghanistan to try to find bin Laden. Just as I was waking this morning I heard a story on the radio which breathlessly reported how the Taliban is growing stronger there every day. In the eyes of the Chicken Little Media, Afghanistan is as much a quagmire as Iraq. If all the troops in Iraq were in Afghanistan, the Left would still be calling for our immediate withdrawl.)

So I guess I'm a bit cynical on this fifth anniversary of 9/11. Instead of helping America win the War on Terror, it's helping turn us into a nation of whining victims. Instead of being used to whip us into a righteous fury, it's being used to reduce us to helpless sobbing. Instead of resolving to kill the bastards wherever and whenever we find them, we are resolving to understand our enemy and not judge them too harshly.

The 9/11 attacks were an acid test of America's resolve. Based on what I've seen lately, we're coming very close to failing that test.