Five years removed from the
tragedy of September 11, 2001, our nation still feels the pain and sorrow from
that fateful day.Like no other event in
recent history, September 11 brought America together in a time of grief
and an outpouring of emotion.Today, we
remember the 3,000 innocent lives taken in the blink of an eye by these
terrorist attacks.
I still remember watching the
news that Tuesday morning and seeing footage of the planes hitting the WorldTradeCenter towers and the
Pentagon.Like you, I sat and prayed for
the men and women that were trapped in the smoking buildings.Everyone offered our thanks to those brave
citizens of New York and Virginia who rushed into the burning
wreckage, trying to rescue any possible survivors.And I wept when watching the towers collapse
into the streets of New York.These are moments frozen in time that no
American could ever forget.
On the anniversary of these horrible
attacks, it is fitting for Americans to pause and reflect on the challenges our
nation now faces to defend our freedoms.A committed group of religious Islamic terrorists – fanatics who twist
and pervert the teachings of the Koran to meet their extremist goals – are bent
on destroying America
and its allies in the Global War on Terror.
We have seen attacks in Britain, Spain
and Indonesia
that have killed hundreds of innocent civilians.Law enforcement officials have used
innovative and modernized counter-terrorism policies to help successfully
thwart terrorist plots in the Netherlands,
Britain, Canada and the United States; plots that may have
killed thousands.The lesson learned
from these experiences is that we must remain ever vigilant in the global war
if we are to defend against this enemy.
Like December 7, 1941 before
it, September 11 has become a day of remembrance.It is a time to remember the lives lost that
day, as well as the sacrifices made by our brave soldiers deployed on the front
lines.September 11 is also a reminder
that there is work left to do.It is
groups like Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah and Hamas whose goal it is to destroy America and
everything that defines our great nation.They will continue to plot new and innovative terrorist attacks against
our homeland and our people.It is up to
the Congress and the President to work together to ensure that September 11 is
never repeated again.
America must never forget the events of September 11,
2001.They shaped a generation of men
and women across the country and thrust us squarely into the Global War on
Terror.On the fifth anniversary of that
day, the United States
should pause to remember the thousands of innocent lives lost and the
sacrifices of the military men and women who serve around the globe to protect
our rights and freedoms.