To Lay Us Down For Freedom's Sake, Our Brother's Bones Beside
Nine days after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the forty-third President of the United States of America, George W. Bush, addressed the nation and the world to a House chamber filled with America's representatives and leaders.
The gallery included President Bush's family, an imam, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, and notably Lisa Beamer, widow of Todd Beamer who died heroically in a remote field in Pennsylvania.
Vice President Cheney was, for security reasons, at an undisclosed site away from Washington, D. C.
That same day, while smoke still rose above the rubble of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon still black with an open wound, the Red Cross announced it would deep-freeze blood donations as part of a strategic reserve, troops were being dispatched to the Persian Gulf, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld said that so far over 5,000 Reservists have been called to active duty, and the USS Theodore Roosevelt passed between Willowby Spit and Hampton Roads, Virginia, where the USS Monitor defeated the CSA Virginia, 1862, heading out into the Atlantic.
"Mr. Speaker, Mr. President Pro Tempore, members of Congress, and fellow Americans," President Bush began.
Not since Franklin D. Roosevelt had a president spoken such words before Congress after an attack on American soil.
What followed was not simply the best speech George W. Bush ever gave, it was one of the finest Presidential speeches ever delivered.
President Bush opened with a moving recognition to the many Americans who, like Lisa Beamer's husband, gave their life in defense of others or who had selflessly answered the call to duty in the past week and a half. Moreover, President Bush recognized the citizens of eighty other nations who died in the attack and the out pouring of support America had received from around the world.
It would be hard to imagine that at that moment, in the gallery, Prime Minister Tony Blair did not recall the strains of the "Star Spangled Banner" being played at Buckingham Palace earlier in the week.
"Tonight," President Bush continued, "we are a country awakened to danger and called to defend freedom."
The enemies of freedom, President Bush said, "committed an act of war against our country."
The President called on the military "to be ready". He cautioned that the war against terrorism would be protracted and expensive. But, he said, "We will not tire, we will not falter and we will not fail."
President Bush also announced the formation of a cabinet-level homeland security agency, vowed to rebuild New York, and "rally the world" to defeating terrorism.
In the fight against terrorism, Bush told the world, other nations are either with us or against us.
He placed the responsibility for the attack of 11 September 2001 directly on the shoulders of the international terrorist organization al Qaeda, their leaders and anyone who supported or harbored them. He demanded that the Taliban regime in Afghanistan hand over the al Qaeda terrorists and give the United States full access to their training camps.
The President asked Congress to improve air-travel safety, support the faltering airline industry, and provide better tools to law enforcement with which to identify and apprehend terrorists.
He asked Americans to be calm, patient but resolute. For this he promised, "I will not forget this wound to our country or those who inflicted it. I will not yield; I will not rest; I will not relent in waging this struggle for freedom and security for the American people."
The following morning the Columbus Dispatch, Columbus, Ohio, ran a four column banner headline in Bodoni Bold reading, 'Justice will be done'.
Twelve months have now passed. For most of America, life has gone on. To be sure, we have a Homeland Defense Alert color code and National Guard soldiers are periodically dispatched to the Golden Gate Bridge and the Pentagon has been restored.
And, to be sure, we did launch a strike against al Qaeda in Afghanistan and have employed overt and covert assets in many parts of the world. Their effectiveness has been subject to debate.
But, how does the record stand against the rhetoric of 20 September?
Osama bin Laden has not been found, al Qaeda is still tying down US troops in Afghanistan; al Qaeda bases in Somalia, Yemen, Indonesia and the Philippines remain untouched. It is no longer clear whether we still want bin Laden "dead or alive", as Bush demanded on September 17, 2001 at Ground Zero.
In the meantime, the Gross National Debt of Afghanistan is being added to the U.S. national debt, after, of course, subtracting the foreign exchange value of this year's Afghan bumper poppy crop.
Many of the Reservists and Guardsman called to active duty last fall have been sent home; over 2,000 were released last week. The Defense Department budget reflects a military establishment that is still fighting the Cold War against the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics while keeping a ground force that is ready for Normandy but ill-equipped or trained for present day national security threats.
Moreover, the Department of Defense is engaged in an internecine struggle over the use of special operations soldiers and whether or not a take-down of Iraq is a good idea. The "can do" spirit has yet to surface.
While the generals argue, few can possibly ignore let alone deny the immense solemnity or the personal meaning of a recent military funeral at the Antietam National Cemetery for a soldier killed in Afghanistan, but is it sufficient?
The so-called Department of Homeland Whatever is bogged down in Congress. Only a handful of airports have upgraded security. The air-marshal program is short of ammunition and the pilots of most major airlines are more worried about job security in a bankrupt industry than in hijackings.
The anthrax case is not only unsolved, it is causing some to wonder whether or not the word "Investigation" is worthy of retention in the name of the FBI.
But whether one calls it the Federal Bureau of Investigation or the Federal Bureau of Blundering is irrelevant as long as the Department of Justice prosecutors and the Judicial system are locking horns over what, if any, civil rights suspected terrorists may or may not have. Do we really have laws for this? Are we prepared for what President Bush asked? Did anyone plan or think ahead?
How to rebuild New York has degenerated into a local squabble over monumentation and the nation debates whether or not September 11 should be a national holiday, an excuse for a three-day weekend to shop at the mall.
Meanwhile, the Administration daily broadcasts contradictory plans and policy toward Iraq causing most of our allies to take a powder, and the victims of the World Trade Center attack go for a classic all-American solution: file a lawsuit.
Yet, while Vice President Cheney is urging us to march at dawn on the gates of Baghdad and American Special Forces soldiers are having a shoot-out in the highly questionable roll as personal body guards for the President of Afghanistan, Air Force General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, tells us, "What the American people need to do is conduct their business as usual."
Is this what President Bush intended that moving and somber Thursday night last September? As we listened that night last year, full of fear and anger and energy, to his moving and eloquent words is this what we expected?
Where, Mr. President, do we now stand on the war on terrorism? When do we get a chance to sacrifice? When do we get a chance to fight and die for freedom and justice? Should we thaw those blood supplies, Mr. President, or prepare to bleed?
Was it just the rhetoric of the moment, or did you call us to war? If you really want us, America will follow you in this war against terrorism as America followed President Lincoln in a war against slavery.
We are coming, father Abr'am, six hundred thousand more,
From Mississippi's winding stream and from New England's shore,
We leave our ploughs and workshops, our wives and children, dear,
With hearts too full for utterance, with but a silent tear.
We dare not look behind us, but steadfastly before --
We are coming, father Abr'am, six hundred thousand more!
To lay us down for freedom's sake, our brother's bones beside.
Tell us, Mr. President, for we will not tire, falter or fail.