THE WAR IN IRAQ IS THE WAR ON TERROR (via <~text text="Random Jottings">

A note of thanks to those who serve (Christy Ferer, Air Force Print News, 9/30/03).

When I told friends about my pilgrimage to Iraq to thank the U.S. troops, reaction was underwhelming at best. . . .

But the reason seemed clear to me: 200,000 troops have been sent halfway around the world to stabilize the kind of culture that breeds terrorists like those who I believe began World War III on Sept. 11, 2001. Reaction was so politely negative that I began to doubt my role on the first USO/Tribeca Institute tour into newly occupied Iraq where, on average, a soldier a day is killed. . . .

One mother of two from Montana told me she enlisted because of Sept. 11. Dozens of others told us the same thing. One young soldier showed me his metal bracelet engraved with the name of a victim he never knew and that awful date none of us will ever forget. . . .

What I was not prepared for was to have soldiers show us the World Trade Center memorabilia they'd carried with them into the streets of Baghdad. Others had clearly been holding in stories of personal 9/11 tragedies which had made them enlist. . . .

One particular soldier, Capt. Vargas from the Bronx, told me he enlisted in the Army after some of his wife's best friends were lost at the World Trade Center.

When he glimpsed the piece of recovered metal from the Towers that I had been showing to a group of soldiers he grasped for it as if it were the Holy Grail. Then he handed it to Kid Rock who passed the precious metal through the 5000 troops in the audience. They lunged at the opportunity to touch the steel that symbolized what so many of them felt was the purpose of their mission -- which puts them at risk every day in the 116 degree heat, not knowing all the while if a sniper was going to strike at anytime.

Ms. Ferer's husband Neil was killed in the World Trade Center on September 11.

It is easy to be cynical about democracy or, even if not cynical, to conclude that its many virtues do not include subtle reasoning or powerful analysis. But the people of the United States collectively understand something that many pundits and politicians don't understand: the liberation of Iraq is an effective direct response to 9/11, regardless of whether Saddam supported Al Qaeda, or had any role in the attacks. Posted by David Cohen at July 27, 2003 8:37 PM