ITS DIFFERENT WHEN IT IS YOU

"The attack...will resonate in our consciousness for as long as we live,"...

"Yet as the grieving process takes its course, and the work of healing begins, we must learn to draw strength and purpose from this experience. We must learn to apply the lessons it has taught us...

The words above sound as if they could have been lifted directly from any of last week's memorials in remembering the sins and the tragedies of the 11th of September, 2001.

But in fact, they are the words of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan speaking of the attack on the UN headquarters in Baghdad.

I believe Mr. Annan's words are generally prescriptive of actions that follow a senseless tragedy. And I believe that the USA has indeed subscribed to those imperatives laid out in his thoughts.

The USA has drawn strength and purpose from the tragedy. The patriotic fervor, and recognition of appropropriate heroes has given our nation strength. The renewed recognition of the privilege of freedom makes us stronger every day. And our purpose is clear...to wipe from this earth the threats posed by those who derive power from fear and oppression and the trampling upon that which we as Americans know to be "unalienable rights" - humankind's very birthright from God.

And as to applying the lessons it taught us. Well, my friends, that is what CPT Patti - and your soldier - do every day on our behalf. For they have taken the fight to the enemy. September 11th, and the series of half-hearted engagements with terror practioners that lead to that horrid day have taught us that weakness and pacificity in the face of these barbarian zealots breeds only contempt and disrespect.

Those who mourn the UN Headquarters Bombing do so against the backdrop of the ever present question "Why? Why, when all the UN is trying to do is to provide assistance to those who need the basics of life - food, water, shelter...?"

Perhaps they can understand the question in the minds of millions of Americans reflecting on the September 11th atrocities: "Why? Why, when all we are doing is trying to foster the spread of those certain unalienable rights?"

The humanitarian relief organizations of the UN in Baghdad were the undeserving targets of senseless murder in August 2003.

So too was the USA the undeserving target in September 2001.

Understand then that the bad guys in these equations do not subscribe to humanity's concept of civilization. They foist upon us a new type of war. They target the innocent, exploiting the very nature of freedom.

It is a threat to all who live free in this world...not only Americans.

And the world will long recall who answered the threat.

For that - again - be proud of our nation, and be proud of our soldiers.