THE DATE

Posted at 7:41 a.m. ET

Today is September 11th, the seventh anniversary of the terrorist outrages in New York and Washington, and the terrorist destruction of United flight 93 in Pennsylvania .  In the seven years since, we have not had a single attack on our soil.  This, of course, will be attributed by the usual suspects to luck or some other myth, just as Ronald Reagan's successful ending of the Cold War, in victory, was attributed to 1) more luck, 2) coincidence, 3) Soviet economic problems, or 4) the enlightened wonderfulness of Mikhail Gorbachev.  It was Gorbachev who got the Nobel Peace Prize, not Reagan, who actually organized the peace.  Reagan, however, began his successful policy by building up American defense, something the Nobel Prize committee apparently frowned upon.

When we think of September 11th, 2008, we should think of 1948.  December 7th, 1948, was exactly seven years after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor - the equivalent of today's distance, in time, from the terrorist attacks.  By 1948 World War II was over, the Pearl Harbor attackers and Nazi Germany had been defeated, and Americans were building the post-war world.  Pearl Harbor, while memorialized every year, had become a memory.

It is different today.  The war is not over, the enemy has not been defeated, and many of this country's elite institutions, which so fervently assisted during World War II, are at best indifferent to and at worst actually hostile to our efforts. 

Our media today is run by a generation of editors and news managers who believe that their greatest triumph was the destruction of our effort in Vietnam.  Our universities are populated by the intellectual leftovers of that era.  ROTC programs are still banned by our most "prestigious" schools.  Imagine what the national reaction would have been if Harvard or Yale had banned officer-training programs in World War II?

Many myths have grown since the 9-11 attacks.  One of the most pernicious is that America was loved on that day, but allowed that love to turn to hate because of the policies of the Bush administration.  In fact, the attacks brought only a momentary respite in the traditional anti-Americanism that permeates Europe, and no respite in the hatred of America that permeates the Arab world.  Yes, there were some gestures of sympathy with our country, some signing of condolence books, some playing of our national anthems in the courtyards of foreign governments.

But within two days of the attacks, the BBC was on the air with a vile, anti-American program.  The famous French editorial entitled, "We Are All Americans Now," was actually anti-American in its tone.  Many nations made it clear very quickly that their sympathy was pro forma, that they actually wanted us to do very little to combat terror or interfere with their financial dealings in the Middle East.

Let us not forget that the vile Jimmy Carter, a severe critic of the Bush administration, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002, a year after the attacks.  A member of the selection committee openly stated that the award was "a kick in the shins" to President Bush.  This was months before Iraq, so that could not have been the excuse.

Now we're told by the Democratic candidate that we must "rebuild" our "broken" alliances.  What are we rebuilding from?  Many of our "alliances" have proven hollow, especially our alliances within NATO.  Yes, NATO has "helped" in Afghanistan, but its help is anemic, and some NATO nations won't even allow their troops to engage in combat.  NATO is the United States, maybe Britain.  The rest is window dressing.

There is danger that we will lose our will, and lose our sense of our own independence and nationhood.  Today we should affirm our right to defend ourselves and our civilization, without the permission of the leftist intellectual elites who often dominate our discussion. 

In two months America will have a choice between two visions of America - one the traditional, confident vision of the indispensable nation that has done more to protect human freedom than any other nation in history, the other the clouded vision of a "defective" nation that must be restrained, and become a supplicant to that myth called "world opinion."  On that choice may rest the future of this country, and much more.

September 11, 2008.