Our troops remain at risk 9 years after 9/11 attacks | Tri-City Herald

Tomorrow we mark the ninth anniversary of the attack that changed our world.

Sept. 11, 2001, was a day as infamous as Dec. 7, 1941, and, in immediate consequences, even more deadly. At Pearl Harbor 2,300 died; at the World Trade Center towers in New York, the Pentagon and a lonely field in Pennsylvania, 3,000 were killed.

Pearl Harbor plunged us into World War II; Sept. 11 forced us into a "war on terror," which led us to war in Afghanistan.

Our goal was to end the Taliban rule there that harbored international terrorists and to seek out Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of global terrorism.

These two cowardly attacks on America may have been 60 years apart, but both drew the nation together instantly. Political labels faded to insignificance, Congress and the president worked together to fashion policies to deal with the aggression.

And, most of all, American troops responded with valor and sacrifice both to free a nearly enslaved people and at the same time assure the world that our shores would not be attacked again.

Flags sprouted from front yards and lapels, cars and trucks.

The civilized world -- soon to experience renewed terrorist attacks of its own -- expressed sympathy for our losses and joined in the cause of rooting out this evil corruption of a great religion.

For these were not mainstream Muslims -- these were the fanatics whose sympathies, actions and morality were of the 11th century.

They perverted the Quran, the Muslim Holy Book, which, from Adam to Abraham, includes similarities to Jewish and Christian Scriptures.

Tomorrow is a solemn day for America. We mourn our dead. We cheer on our troops at home, in Afghanistan and still in Iraq.

We're grateful that Pastor Terry Jones, leader of a small Florida church, announced Thursday that he's canceling plans to burn copies of the Quran to mark the anniversary.

That act would have served only to increase the world's capacity for hate, and hate is where terrorists find nourishment.

Expanding the war on terrorism to Iraq dampened some of the patriotic fervor that engulfed the nation up until then. Without a link between Iraq and the 9/11 attacks, the invasion drew more controversy than the Afghanistan war.

But support for our troops never wavered, including for those who remain in Iraq to help that country's government re-establish itself. Those troops, though "noncombatant," remain at great personal peril.

Experts within the present and previous administrations have told the American people that Osama bin Laden's organization has been so shattered by the killing of many of his sub-chiefs and individual terrorists that its ability to mount another attack of the magnitude on 9/11 no longer exists.

But the Taliban is trying to make a comeback.

Gen. David Petraeus and his forces in Afghanistan require our whole-hearted support.

The troops need our encouragement.

This has been America's longest war.

Our troops have rotated in and out of the battle zones repeatedly.

It is a tough sacrifice for them to make and an equally tough sacrifice for their families.

This is a day to remember the dead from the original attacks and from the battles that followed, although battle is not always the precise word to describe our military's response to terrorism.

Our servicemen and women operate in a world where death comes from roadside explosive devices, "friendly" houses and suicide bombers.

So it is a day to remember and a day to make a renewed commitment to our troops and their families: We will try harder to show you just how much we appreciate what you are doing for all of us.