09/05/2002
9/11...A Look Back
I thought we’d take a look back at the formal remarks from some of our leaders following 9/11.
-----
President George W. Bush address before a joint session of Congress 9/21/01. [Excerpts]
My fellow citizens, for the last nine days, the entire world has seen for itself the state of our union – and it is strong.
Tonight we are a country awakened to danger and called to defend freedom. Our grief has turned to anger, and anger to resolution. Whether we bring our enemies to justice, or bring justice to our enemies, justice will be done
On Sept. 11, enemies of freedom committed an act of war against our country. Americans have known wars, but for the past 136 years, they have been wars on foreign soil, except for one Sunday in 1941. Americans have known the casualties of war, but not at the center of a great city on a peaceful morning. Americans have known surprise attacks, but never before on thousands of civilians. All of this was brought upon us in a single day, and night fell on a different world, a world where freedom itself is under attack
By aiding and abetting murder, the Taliban regime is committing murder. And tonight, the United States of America makes the following demands on the Taliban:
--Deliver to United States authorities all the leaders of Al Qaeda who hide in your hand.
--Release all foreign nationals, including American citizens, you have unjustly imprisoned, and protect foreign journalists, diplomats, and aid workers in your country.
--Close immediately and permanently every terrorist training camp in Afghanistan and hand over every terrorist, and every person in their support structure, to appropriate authorities.
--Give the United States full access to terrorist training camps, so we can make sure they are no longer operating.
These demands are not open to negotiation or discussion. The Taliban must act and act immediately. They will hand over the terrorists, or they will share in their fate.
I also want to speak tonight directly to Muslims throughout the world. We respect your faith. It is practiced freely by many millions of Americans, and by millions more in countries that America counts as friends. Its teachings are good and peaceful, and those who commit evil in the name of Allah blaspheme the name of Allah. The terrorists are traitors to their own faith, trying, in effect, to hijack Islam itself. The enemy of America is not our many Muslim friends; it is not our many Arab friends. Our enemy is a radical network of terrorists and every government that supports them.
Our war on terror begins with Al Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped, and defeated
These terrorists kill not merely to end lives, but to disrupt and end a way of life. With every atrocity, they hope that America grows fearful, retreating from the world and forsaking our friends. They stand against us, because we stand in their way.
We are not deceived by their pretenses to piety. We have seen their kind before. They are the heirs of all the murderous ideologies of the 20th century. By sacrificing human life to serve their radical visions, by abandoning every value except the will to power, they follow in the path of fascism and Nazism and totalitarianism. And they will follow that path all the way, to where it ends, in history’s unmarked grave of discarded lies
Americans should not expect one battle, but a lengthy campaign, unlike any other we have seen. It may include dramatic strikes, visible on television, and covert operations, secret even in success. We will starve terrorists of funding, turn them one against another, drive them from place to place, until there is no refuge or rest. And we will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism. Every nation in every region now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime
This is not, however, just America’s fight. And what is at stake is not just America’s freedom. This is the world’s fight. This is civilization’s fight. This is the fight of all who believe in progress and pluralism, tolerance and freedom.
We ask every nation to join us. We will ask, and we will need, the help of police forces, intelligence services, and banking systems around the world. The United States is grateful that many nations and many international organizations have already responded with sympathy and with support
The civilized world is rallying to America’s side
After all that has just passed – all the lives taken and all the possibilities and hopes that died with them – it is natural to wonder if America’s future is one of fear. Some speak of an age of terror. I know there are struggles ahead and dangers to face. But this country will define our times, not be defined by them. As long as the United States of America is determined and strong, this will not be an age of terror; this will be an age of liberty, here and across the world.
Great harm has been done to us. We have suffered great loss. And in our grief and anger we have found our mission and our moment. Freedom and fear are at war. The advance of human freedom – the great achievement of our time and the great hope of every time – now depends on us. Our nation, this generation, will lift a dark threat of violence from our people and our future. We will rally the world to this cause by our efforts and by our courage. We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail
The course of this conflict is not known, yet its outcome is certain. Freedom and fear, justice and cruelty, have always been at war, and we know that God is not neutral between them.
Fellow citizens, we will meet violence with patient justice, assured of the rightness of our cause and confident of the victories to come. In all that lies before us, may God grant us wisdom, and may he watch over the United States of America.
-----
New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, in an address to the United Nations on October 1, 2001. [Excerpts]
This was not just an attack on the city of New York or on the United States of America. It was an attack on the very idea of a free, inclusive and civil society. It was a direct assault on the founding principles of the United Nations itself
Terrorism is based on the persistent and deliberate violation of fundamental human rights. With bullets and bombs and now with hijacked airplanes, terrorists deny the dignity of human life. Terrorism preys particularly on cultures and communities that practice openness and tolerance. Their targeting of innocent civilians mocks the efforts of those who seek to live together in peace as neighbors. It defies the very notion of being a neighbor
The strength of America’s response, please understand, flows from the principles upon which we stand. Americans are not a single ethnic group. Americans are not of one race or one religion. Americans emerge from all of your nations. We’re defined as Americans by our beliefs, not by our ethnic origins, our race or our religion.
Our belief in religious freedom, political freedom, economic freedom – that’s what makes an American. Our belief in democracy, the rule of law and respect for human life. That’s how you become an American
Our freedom threatens them because they know if our ideas of freedom gain a foothold among their people, it will destroy their power. So they strike out against us to keep those ideas from reaching their people
The terrorists have no ideas or ideals with which to combat freedom and democracy. So their only defense is to strike out against innocent civilians, destroying human life in massive numbers and hoping to deter all of us from our pursuit and expansion of freedom
The United Nations must hold accountable any country that supports or condones terrorism. Otherwise, you will fail in your primary mission as peacekeeper.
It must ostracize any nation that supports terrorism. It must isolate any nation that remains neutral in the fight against terrorism. Now is the time in the words of your charter, the United Nations Charter, to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security.
This is not a time for further study or vague directives
Look at that destruction, that massive, senseless, cruel loss of human life and then I ask you to look in your hearts and recognize that there is no room for neutrality on the issue of terrorism. You’re either with civilization or with terrorists. On one side is democracy, the rule of law and respect for human life. On the other is tyranny, arbitrary executions and mass murder.
We are right and they are wrong. It’s as simple as that. And by that I mean that America and its allies are right about democracy, about religious, political and economic freedom. And the terrorists are wrong, and in fact evil, in their mass destruction of human life in the name of addressing alleged injustices.
Let those who say that we must understand the reasons for terorism come with me to the thousands of funerals we’re having in New York City – thousands – and explain those insane maniacal reasons to the children who will grow up without fathers and mothers and to the parents who have had their children ripped from them for no reason at all
Those who practice terrorism, murdering or victimizing innocent civilians, lose any right to have their cause understood by decent people and lawful nations
The era of moral relativism between those who practice or condone terrorism and those nations who stand up against it must end. Moral relativism doesn’t have a place in this discussion and debate. There’s no moral way to sympathize with grossly immoral actions. And by so doing, and by trying to do that, unfortunately a fertile field has been created in which terrorism has grown
Freedom from fear is a basic human right. We need to reassert our right to live free from fear with greater confidence and determination than ever before here in New York City, across America and around the World
This is not a question of retaliation or revenge. It’s a matter of justice leading to peace.
-----
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, in a speech to a Labour Conference, October 3, 2001. [Excerpts]
In retrospect the millennium marked only a moment in time. It was the events of September 11 that marked a turning point in history, where we confront the dangers of the future and assess the choices facing humankind.
It was a tragedy. An act of evil. From this nation goes our deepest sympathy and prayers for the victims and our profound solidarity with the American people. We were with you at the first. We will stay with you to the last
Whatever the dangers of the action we take, the dangers of inaction are far, far greater
Don’t overreact some say. We aren’t. We haven’t lashed out. No missiles on the first night just for effect.
Don’t kill innocent people. We are not the ones who waged war on the innocent. We seek the guilty.
Look for a diplomatic solution. There is no diplomacy with bin Laden or the Taliban regime.
State an ultimatum and get their response. We stated the ultimatum; they haven’t responded.
Understand the causes of terror. Yes, we should try, but let there be no moral ambiguity: nothing could ever justify the events of September 11 and it is to turn justice on its head to pretend it could. The action we take will be proportionate, targeted. We will do all we humanly can to avoid civilian casualties.
But understand what we are dealing with. Listen to the calls of those passengers on the planes. Think of the children on them, told they were going to die
America has its faults as a society, as we have ours.
But I think of the Union of America born out of the defeat of slavery. I think of its Constitution, with its inalienable rights granted to every citizen, still a model for the world. I think of the Statue of Liberty and how many refugees, migrants and the impoverished passed its light and felt that if not for them, for their children a new world could indeed be theirs
This is a moment to seize. The kaleidoscope has been shaken. The pieces are in flux. Soon they will settle again. Before they do, let us reorder this world around us.
Today humankind has the science and technology to destroy itself or to provide prosperity to all. Yet science can’t make that choice for us. Only the moral power of a world acting as a community can. By the strength of our common endeavor we achieve more together than we can alone.
For those people who lost their lives on September 11, and those that mourn them, now is the time for the strength to build that community.
Let that be their memorial.
-----
Reverend Billy Graham, at the National Day of Prayer and Remembrance service, September 14, 2001. [Excerpts.]
Today we say to those who masterminded this cruel plot and to those who carried it out that the spirit of this nation will not be defeated by their twisted and diabolical schemes. Someday those responsible will be brought to justice as President Bush and our Congress have so forcefully stated
A tragedy like this could have torn our country apart. But instead it has united us and we have become a family.
So those perpetrators who took this on to tear us apart, it has worked the other way. It’s backlashed. It’s backfired. We are more united than ever before
One of the things we desperately need is a spiritual renewal in this country. We need a spiritual revival in America. And God has told us in his word time after time that we’re to repent of our sins and return to him and he will bless us in a new way
This event reminds us of the brevity and the uncertainty of life. We never know when we too will be called into eternity. I doubt if even one of those people who got on those planes or walked into the World Trade Center or the Pentagon last Tuesday morning thought it would be the last day of their lives. They didn’t – it didn’t occur to them
Yes, our nation has been attacked, buildings destroyed, lives lost. But now we have a choice: whether to implode and disintegrate emotionally and spiritually as a people and a nation; or whether we choose to become stronger through all this struggle to rebuild on a solid foundation. And I believe that we’re in the process of starting to rebuild on that foundation
We also know that God is going to give wisdom and courage and strength to the president and those around him. And this is going to be a day that we will remember as a day of victory.
-----
Brian Trumbore
|