Current Temperature in Hell: 34 degrees Fahrenheit and falling?

If you're familiar with the UK weekly "The Guardian" then you're aware that their M.O. is usually to bash the U.S., and over the last eight years, to ridicule, belittle and besmirch the Bush administration. That's what makes this column all the more unexpected.

It basically sums up--from a much larger pulpit--what I've felt all along: George W. Bush, although not perfect, has been right on the War on Terror in general and the pursuit of al-Qaeda elsewhere in the world. He understood clearly, post-9/11, the threat that islamists would pose to freedom and democracy worldwide, and took the fight to their yard. A few excerpts:

The theocratic barbarism responsible for the attack on the Twin Towers was driven not by what America and its allies had done, but by what we represented.

He continues:

The most fundamental decision in western security policy in the past seven years has not been the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. It has been the recognition that the most voluble adversaries of western society are not merely a criminal subculture, and still less an incipient liberation movement. Rather, they are a reactionary, millenarian and atavistic force with whom accommodation is impossible as well as intensely undesirable.

Read the entire article. It's not a pro-Bush honk, but a seemingly objective look at the overall Bush policy of pursuit in lieu of passivity.

Remember again.

I regularly read Charles Johnson's blog Little Green Footballs. I'm newer to it, though, and was unaware of this story from 9/11 survivor Tilly. I suggest you read it.

Click here and when done reading, click on the "195" at the top. Then scroll down through a series of four additional posts to LGF.

It's riveting and I hope it kindles in you the feelings it should.

Remember.

I probably couldn't have been more geographically distant from New York, the Pentagon and that field in Pennsylvania six years ago today. I was on my way to work in Orange County, California, having just finished teaching an early-morning seminary class to a group of high school-aged youth at my church. As was my custom, I listened to KFI640 on the way to work. I heard about the first plane on the radio news as I entered Carbon Canyon. As the news came in, I couldn't really believe what I was hearing. Were we under attack from an army? Who was doing this? Was it an accident? Multiple accidents? An aircraft controllers glitch? I remember actually turning the radio to 97.1 FM KLSX, because I knew they ran the Howard Stern show in the morning--and I knew he broadcast out of New York--that he was there.

I remember later that week, still not fully understanding who or what did this--as I drove up the hill towards the freeway with my wife and daughter in the car--telling my wife as tears welled up in my eyes, "if they need me, I'll go and fight. I'm ready to go." In retrospect I knew that the spirit was more than willing--but the flesh was old, out of shape and ill-prepared. In this war my physical abilities have not been called upon, but in the years since September 11, 2001, my confidence in this country and in its leadership has not waned. It is not the popular road, but I believe it to be the right one.

Now I have three kids, and we don't miss an opportunity to thank the men and women in uniform: armed forces, police, firefighters, for the service the render on our behalf. Last year we brought homemade cookies to the local police and firefighters with the kids; earlier this year, our daughter collected Girl Scout cookies and delivered them to the local National Guard troops--the day before they deployed to Iraq.

However you remember today, remember that real human beings lost their lives on 9/11--not reds or blues, conservatives or liberals, real human beings--our brothers and sisters. It was fratricide on that day. With that in mind, I wholly support the efforts of freedom-loving people everywhere who, when faced with the choice of us/freedom vs. them/radical enslavement, choose us.

God bless the memory of those who have died fighting in this war against evil. May God grant His grace to accompany those who died innocently six years ago this day--and those who had just enough information to die as heroes--thereby showing all of us that greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.