A Great and Terrible Nation Responds

Discuss this on our boards!

A Great and Terrible Nation Responds
by Robert Yoho, Columnist and Senior Editor

September 11, 2002

"Eye on Conservatism"

Columnist Robert Yoho There have been no shortage of remembrances and memorials for the victims of 9/11. However, the songs and eulogies ring rather hollow to me in appropriately remembering those who died a year ago. In my opinion, the best way to memorialize them is not with eulogies, candlelight vigils, and stone markers.

Let us honor them with a lasting, yet meaningful memorial, not of brick or marble. The victims of 9/11 will have died in vain unless we do something to avenge their violent and pointless deaths.

America should dedicate itself to becoming a great and terrible nation.

Throughout our history, the United States has been great, not only in terms of our landmass, but also in our goodness and philanthropy. We have been great in our love of freedom, justice, and peace. In times of natural disaster, Americans have always been great in coming to the aid of victims.

But America must also become terrible in our wrath! There must be a dreadful and bitter reckoning for September 11th. And we must decisively win this war on terrorism!

America will not remain great unless we develop the capacity to execute swift and terrible justice on all those who dare to lift a hand against us. That is a memorial worth erecting: to dedicate our last full measure of devotion to becoming a great and terrible nation.

Our country’s unique and remarkable tolerance of others should never be extended to those who would use our values as a weapon against us. The world must forever know that, above all else, America loves peace and freedom. We embrace goodness and virtue. We strive to live peaceably with the world. We will always offer an extended hand to those in need. But to any who would dare to lift a hand against us, they must have no doubts that we will strike back with deliberate and overwhelming force. No one must ever again question our resolve. Retribution will be swift, sure, and final!

The enemies of freedom should also know that future hostilities will be met with bold preemptive strikes whenever we have credible evidence that they are conspiring to harm us. Terrorists must not mistake our tolerance for weakness. No longer will our nation sit back and wait for the next September 11th or December 7th to occur. Conspiracy will be regarded as provocation.

If we truly want to remember and do justice for the victims of 9/11, then we must commit our nation to the utter and immediate annihilation of any who would dare to attack us again.

Moreover, the attacks of September 11th should not be edited and “sanitized” by the television networks, so that they fail to offend sensitive viewers. It is imperative that we watch and remember them as they were. It is essential that we make ourselves confront those thoughts and feelings we experienced that day, and the sorrow, fear, and outrage those horrible images spawned.

Americans need to get angry all over again! We need to demand justice and retribution for the ghastly murders of our fellow citizens. The truth must not be purged from our minds just because some will find it distasteful. We need to see these atrocities — to be reminded of them — the same way we must never forget the images of mass graves full of naked, skeletal remains, slaughtered by Nazis in the Holocaust. And seeing them once again, we will urge our timid leaders to act!

In word and actions, our Commander-in-Chief must make it clear to the world that this tolerant nation will no longer tolerate terrorism directed at our citizens. A hostile action against any one of us will be treated as a threat to us all. The greatest memorial we can give these victims one year later is the legacy of a great and terrible nation that our enemies dare not attack.It is no longer enough to merely remember. A great and terrible nation must respond. ***

Photo of Robert Yoho courtesy of staff files