September 13, 2016—Lest We Forget—Connect the Dots!

Last weekend’s TV shows were full of photographic remembrances of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on America that left nearly 3000 dead, another 6000 casualties and many, many more with heartaches and bitter memories. We are less safe today after 15 years in an undeclared war with an enemy we do not name that has cost trillions, many thousands more lives and casualties, and many, many more heartaches. We need a change.

I joined a number of others who shared briefly their recollections of 9/11 published on Family Security Matters webpage (www.FamilySecurityMatters.org). I’d recommend you click here and read them all.

They reflected a number of common themes—the most important of which, in my opinion, is that we are even less safe today than we were on that clear morning 15 years ago, that shocked all Americans and launched a conflict that continues still without promise of resolution after a major expenditure of U.S. lives and treasure.

Click here for my article, “Whither Our 9/11 Commitments?” It briefly walks the reader through a few facts that show we have fallen far short of hoped for objectives announced immediately after 9/11. My bottom line: “We need to have a serious conversation about our sad situation and chart a new course before it’s too late; this needed mandate is much more important than worrying about a 9/11 repeat. Next time it may be much more catastrophic.”

My friend Peter Huessy’s reflection on immigration issues suggests it may be asking for too much to have a “serious discussion” of any such important issue. Click here to read his summary of precursor events to today’s situation, going back decades before 9/11 in his “The Lessons of 9/11: We Were and Still Are Unserious.” He begins his excellent summary of the Immigration issues with a conclusion

“Unless and until we get serious and reform our immigration system, we will not significantly lessen future terror attacks in this country. That is one of the lessons of the attacks of 9/11. The other is we are apparently repeating history as it is obvious we were also not serious about stopping terrorism before 9/11.”

After an excellent summary of our dysfunctional immigration policies that goes back to the 1960s in discussing these issues, he concluded:

“So the question before us is how much longer we will refuse to be serious?

“When will the American people take back our sovereign right to say ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to those wishing to come to our country?

“Sanctuary cities, open borders, serial amnesties all give the big ‘flip off’ to the American people and the notion of sovereignty.

“That is why people are angry.

“They are, well, telling America: ‘Get serious!’”

Indeed — after 15 years of the “Global War on Terror,” we still fail even to identify our enemies. (“Terrorism” is a strategy or tactic, not an enemy.) We collectively continue to permit “political correctness” to prevent an open discussion of long-standing goals embedded in sharia law that has guided Islam’s advance for centuries and today drives the ventures of Islamic terrorist groups, particularly the Islamic State, as they call themselves, and its objective Caliphate. (We have called them ISIS and the Obama administration calls them ISIL.)

We think of these advances as being overseas, but its tentacles are making their way into America’s homeland.

We’ve even had honor killings permitted under sharia law. Click here for a November 10, 2015 discussion of a Department of Justice report that an estimated 27 victims of so-called “honor killings” each year in the U.S. don’t fit neatly into the FBI’s exhaustive Uniform Crime Reporting Statistics.

Sharia law, which is contrary to our Constitution, is encroaching into the decisions of American courts — click here for a 2011 pertinent discussion and here for a related 2014 Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics and Public Policy scholarly, though unconvincing, article. Personally, I urge that “American Laws for American States” legislation be actively considered by all state legislatures.

An open discussion of such facts and implications is rare indeed — even within the high councils of our government charged with our national security.

How then do we intend to prevail against a dedicated enemy that seeks to kill as many Americans as possible?

As I briefly discussed in my FSM article — and numerous time before in my High Frontier messages, this objective to kill Americans (and Israelis) is shared by Iranian true believers of Shia Islam and Sunni Islam — per al Qaeda, its even more “radical” Islamic State and other derivative Sunni terrorist groups proliferating around the world.

Click here for my 9/11 message two years ago for a discussion of some of these issues, shortly after President Obama had declared the Islamic State was not Islamic — and that his strategy was to degrade and destroy ISIL . . . as ever in denial of obvious facts.

As we think about connecting the dots, there is no more dreaded threat than nuclear armed Islamic true believers — which is why the threat of a nuclear armed Iran is of such concern. And we cannot consider this threat without also considering Iran’s close alliance with North Korea in its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile testing.

North Korea’s underground nuclear test last week (its second this year and fifth overall) indicates its steady march toward gaining a nuclear capability to mate with its ballistic missile development and satellite launch activities — and only serves to heighten this concern. There already have been numerous North Korean ballistic missile tests this year.

I have previously joined other well informed national security and intelligence experts who believe North Korea already has the ability to launch nuclear armed missiles and satellites—and that we should assume Iran also has that capability. (Click here and here.)

One of the most important conclusions of the 9/11 Commission was that the intelligence community missed many indicators that should have warned of the coming threat from 19 Saudi terrorists that executed that deplorable attack fifteen years ago. Some signs were recognized in advance by a few analysts but all such indicators were ignored by the overall intelligence community.

We dare not dismiss the indications and warning of a nuclear armed Iran.

We should already view this Iranian capability as an imminent threat, given Iran alliance with North Korea—and the Iran Nuclear Deal’s poorly considered release of over $100 billion in sanctions relief and the more recent ransom for hostages deal. Iran can simply buy what it can’t already do.

We should have connected the dots before September 11, 2001 — and our lack of support for our Ambassador and other Americans on September 11, 2012 was simply unforgivable, especially given the subsequent lying that attempted to cover up our malfeasance. Yes, Ms. Clinton, it does make a difference.

My final thought for this week is to note that most “millennials” have little if any personal recollection of September 11, 2001 — or September 11, 2012 when America’s Ambassador to Lybia and three other Americans were killed. Those voting for President this year for the first time were only 3-7 years old in 2001. Wonder what they remember–or know of the critical issues at stake in our continuing conflict with the true believers in Islam.

And by the way, we have an apparent education problem in High School teaching curricular that includes a lack of excellence in what we in my day called World History that would inform students of this conflict through the Centuries; American History that would explain to them among other things where the “Shores of Tripoli” in the Marine Hymn comes from; and Civics that should explain to them how our great nation is supposed to be governed.

The lack of knowledge among the generation of American citizens coming of age is also a national security problem.

Ignorance is bliss only in your dreams.

What can you do?

Join us in praying for our nation, and for a rebirth of the freedom sought, achieved and passed to us by those who came before us.

Help us to spread our message to the grass roots and to encourage all “powers that be” to provide for the common defense as they are sworn to do.

Begin by passing this message to your friends and suggest they visit our webpage www.highfrontier.org for more information. Also, please encourage your sphere of influence to sign up for our weekly e-newsletter.

Encourage them to review our past email messages, posted on www.highfrontier.org, to learn about many details related to the existential manmade and natural EMP threats and how we can protect America against them.

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