As the one year anniversary of the day our world changed forever draws closer, many people are trying to figure out how to deal with the attacks of September 11. Many people have moved on with their lives the way they were before that fateful day and that’s good. I’m afraid, however, that many people have forgotten. That’s bad.

I see our nation sliding back into the mentality that we had prior to our darkest day. We’re again afraid to offend but even more dangerously I’m afraid that great sense of national unity we had in the first few months after the attacks is being sacrificed for the sake of political gain in a crucial mid-term election.

President Bush made it very clear from the beginning that this was not a war which would be won in a matter of months. While I believe that al Qaeda’s operations have probably been decimated already in Afghanistan, we all know that this is a world-wide organization with cells in over 60 countries (undoubtedly including our own). Let us not forget that this battle should be never ending because our very existence depends on it. I’ll listen to European advice to proceed with caution and restraint after three thousand of their citizens have been murdered by this gang of crazies because apparently they haven’t learned their lesson after the United States liberated their continent three times in the last century from other kinds of extremists (Germany twice, then Communism). It seems a lot of people have to learn Neville Chamberlain’s lesson the same way he did. Peace has never been gained by a piece of paper. Peace is achieved through the destruction of evil.

As for Iraq, we know Saddam Hussein has chemical weapons. We know he is in search of nuclear weapons if he does not have them already. We know he is also in search of means to deploy them (which may be aided by a recent alliance with Russia). Does anyone doubt that he would hesitate to use it against us? Some even speculate that he may have such weapons in our country already (unlikely, but not impossible since we can’t even stop the flow of drugs across our boarders). Yet, the anti-war crowd wants to wait until he is actually capable to inflict the most damage to us. I for one say the sooner we put a bullet between Saddam’s eyes the better. Waiting means risking more American lives.

Undoubtedly, as September 11, 2002 draws near there will be expressions of grief and sadness as there should be. But I for one maintain my feelings of anger for the three thousand innocent lives extinguished by evil. It has been said that good can tolerate evil, but evil cannot tolerate good. One side will be triumphant over the other in this struggle. Let us maintain our resolve regardless of world opinion, regardless of United Nations approval, regardless of what out-of-touch pacifists may say. That isn’t the way our world works. Instead let us win this war because it is a just defense of liberty and it’s brightest beacon in the United States of America.