The American Spectator

Six years ago today, Islamic murderers committed an unspeakable evil against this nation.

p>I don’t make a habit of quoting myself, but (for reasons that will become clear at the end of this column) I urge you to read the editorial for the following day that I drafted within hours of the 9/11 bombings, on behalf of the Mobile Register editorial board and with the excellent fine-tuning of my board colleagues. I believe the editorial’s themes remain just as relevant today — and if so, there’s a lesson in that relevance that has nothing to do with its author and everything to do with the themes themselves. Before exploring those themes, though, here is the Register editorial from 9/12/01: br> /p> blockquote> Terror will not succeed, and justice will prevail br> UNSPEAKABLE EVIL has occurred. Thousands of innocent people have been killed or injured. The United States of America has been targeted because of its strength, a strength that grows directly from its essential decency.

But for those same reasons of strength and decency, the United States will not be cowed. It will respond firmly and appropriately to Tuesday’s vicious assaults; and when it does, those who are responsible will understand that they are no match for America’s military and moral might.

There is, of course, no logical explanation for the terrorist attacks that shook New York and Washington. There is no ultimate logic to terrorism.

Yes, there may be planning and there may be discipline and there may be an odd rationality that tries to calculate the costs and “benefits” — benefits as defined by a sick mind — of the terrorist actions. But logic, by definition, involves reasoning that is correct and principled. And terrorism knows no principle; terrorism is only a twisted, radical hatred that knows no bounds.

Hatred by its very nature seeks out its opposite; hatred seeks to assault that which is built on hope and on the best of human nature. And hatred succeeds only if it spawns more hatred.