'INSIDE 9/11'

The past two nights I've watched the National Geographic Channel's 'Inside 9/11,' a twenty five year retrospective which details the rise of Osama bin Laden, first as a wealthy Saudi humanitarian, then fighting alongside the mujahadeen to defeat Soviet aggression in Afghanistan, to becoming 'radicalized' by Dr. Abdullah Yusuf Azzam, morphing into a global terrorist, leading the jihad against the West as the founder of the now ubiquitous extremist group al Qaeda.

We learn about the origins of the four 9/11 hijackers, Mohammed Atta, Marwan al Shehhi, Hani Hanjour and Ziad Jarrah; about the private meeting the four had with bin Laden in which they agreed to martyr themselves in the United States; their arrival in America to take flight lessons.

This fascinating four hour study about what led to the worst day in American history, the attacks on New York, Washington DC and Pennsylvania. It brought back a flood of terrible memories and created some new images that will forever haunt me.

In May of 1999 I was in Manhattan and I visited the World Trade Center. I stood at the observation deck on the 110th floor of the South Tower. From that vantage point I could see the curvature of the Earth. I could see New Jersey to the west, Westchester County and Connecticut to the north, the Bronx and Brooklyn to the east. I could also see planes taking off and landing from JFK, LaGuardia and Newark Airports and I remember thinking 'I wonder why no terrorist has ever tried to fly a plane into the World Trade Center?' Then I quickly thought to myself, 'you're crazy!' and went back to being focused again on the amazing view laid out before me from my perch 110 stories above the street.

Last night on the National Geographic Channel for the first time I saw footage of people throwing themselves out of the burning World Trade Center. One man, in an attempt to get some fresh air was conducting a difficult balancing act on a window sill. He had taken his suit jacket off and was waving it around. Then he dropped the coat and tried to scale down the side of the building, presumably to get away from the flames, only to slip and fall some 80 stories to his death. Another woman stood on the edge of the window with her arms raised to heaven. Then she conducted the stations of the cross and jumped.

To hear the firefighters tell it, every few minutes there would be a very distinct sound, a giant thud. It was the sound of bodies hitting the pavement.

Given the growing opposition to the war, I wish that the entire country had watched this program. It brought home to me, yet again, just how smart the Bush plan is to eradicate terrorism around the world. It again struck me how brave the President and his Administration continue to be in pursuing aggressive policies to make America and the world a safer, better place.

Every American citizen should be required to watch the footage of the World Trade Center attacks to be reminded of what we face every day in the global War On Terror. Everyday, American citizens should be required to watch the footage of their fellow citizens jumping out of the burning World Trade Center, to their deaths. It will serve as a reminder as to the kind of people we're dealing with, these al Qaeda bastards, who readily admit that they love death. They prefer death over life.

As Bush has said many, many times 'we are taking the fight to the enemy.' The wisdom of that statement, lost on so many other people, has never been lost on me. Would we really rather fight al Qaeda terrorists in the streets of Omaha or Las Vegas or Chicago or Shreveport? No way. We would rather fight in Afghanistan and Iraq and anywhere else that these terrorists hide and congregate. If it ever comes to the point where we are fighting terrorists in our own cities then it will be too late.

And how else could we possibly do it? The only way to fight terror is the way the President is currently doing it. Could we effectively fight terror by giving authority to the United Nations? Can we depend on the UN? By depending on our notoriously weak and passive European allies?

The course currently being pursued is the only intelligent way to conduct the first global war on terror. People that are opposed to what we're doing are siding with al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, plain and simple.