On September 11, 2001, shortly after the terrorists struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, I walked across the street to the Capitol, swimming against a sea of pandemonium.
Later, I joined other members in the basement of the Capitol Hill Police headquarters for a briefing on what we knew — and what might happen next.
Former Governor Tom Ridge, then serving as President George W. Bush’s homeland security adviser, told us, “The only thing we know for sure is that they want to hit us again, and they want to hit us worse.”
Long before 2001, radical Islamic terrorism was at war with America’s way of life and had already established a terrible rhythm in our national life.
The 1983 Beirut barracks bombing killed 241 American servicemen. Pan Am Flight 103 was blown out of the sky over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, killing 270 people, including 190 Americans. The first World Trade Center bombing came in 1993: six dead, more than 1,000 injured, with the terrorists hoping to topple one tower into the other. In 1998, al-Qaeda bombed our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 people and injuring thousands. Two years later, al-Qaeda struck again, bombing the USS Cole in Yemen and killing 17 American sailors.
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Our government’s response had fallen into a near slumber of its own. Terrorists attacked. Americans mourned. Investigators pursued those responsible. Security was tightened and warnings were issued. Then life moved on — until the terrorists struck again. For all the courage and skill of those fighting terrorism in those years, America remained largely reactive, responding to attacks rather than preventing them and ensuring that they could never happen again.
September 11 broke that rhythm forever. From the firefighters and police who rushed into the Twin Towers without regard to their personal safety, to those who charged the cockpit in the skies over Pennsylvania, America’s defenders surged forward with what felt like all new resolve to take the fight directly to our terrorist enemies.
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America resolved that we would no longer simply bring terrorists to justice after they attacked us. We would find them before they could strike, take the fight to them abroad, and build new defenses here at home.
Twenty-five years later, we should remember the heroes forged that day and we should acknowledge the generation of selfless Americans who have delivered on that promise every day since.
In the aftermath of the attacks, young men and women lined up around the block outside military recruiting offices determined to serve our country. Nearly three million American servicemen and women deployed in the wars that followed September 11. More than 7,000 gave their lives and tens of thousands were wounded. They destroyed terrorist sanctuaries, hunted down al-Qaeda leaders, and brought Osama bin Laden to justice.
When ISIS later established a terrorist caliphate across vast stretches of Iraq and Syria, American forces and our allies destroyed it, liberating nearly 110,000 square kilometers of territory and freeing 7.7 million people from its brutal rule.
But, America’s defenders are not found only on distant battlefields. Some chose careers in law enforcement, disrupting terrorist plans on the homefront and chasing leads that never made the evening news. Others joined the Border Patrol, standing watch on the ground while air marshals guarded the skies. In New York City, 58 children of FDNY firefighters who made the ultimate sacrifice on September 11 have grown up to join the same department their fathers served.
Their greatest accomplishment is measured by what did not happen. The nightmare we feared that day — a succession of increasingly catastrophic terrorist attacks on the American homeland — never came to pass.
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Not because our enemies quit trying, but because America’s defenders stopped them cold.
For a generation, Americans have been able to live their lives without the constant fear that another September 11 was around the corner.
That peace was earned by Americans whose names we know and countless others whose names we never will — by those who served both at home and overseas, those who came home wounded, those who never came home at all, and those who still stand watch today.
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On this solemn anniversary, let us remember the 2,977 innocent souls who perished at the hands of our terrorist enemies on September 11.
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And let us honor those who gave their lives in the long struggle that followed.
Because of the heroes forged that fateful day and every day since, the American people live in freedom and security. So let us offer the thanks of a grateful nation to all who answered the call to protect and defend America these past 25 years.
Our founders proclaimed eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. May we never forget or fail to honor the sacrifices made by America’s defenders from that day to this. And may we never cease to be vigilant in the defense of the land we love. So help us, God.
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