Wednesday

Sipping the last of some French Roast, Private Selection. Son home today with a late summer cold. Poor guy coughs and coughs. Tonight I go to a parent's meeting for Juniors at school.

Poor trolly, he seems to be off his meds. If he were not guilty he would not be so loud. He thinks I have responded to a blog and that my comments don't track back to my blog. Anyone who receives my comments knows I always use my name and blogsite. He also claims I was banned somewhere. News to me. I am deleting him from now on, thus freeing him up to get a life. Bless his heart.

I have been reading pieces written by Arabs and Iraqis in particular about the anniversary of 9/11. I have been reading a blog of interest, Iraq the Model, concerning operations there. Remember our friend Abu Danny? He was very informative during his visit with us a couple of weeks ago. I so admire his strength of character and his hopes for his country. He balances this with the desire to get a green card now and come to join his daughter and her husband in Michigan. He isn't Arab, but he is Iraqi so his perspective is interesting. I pray for his success and safety. He is a good man. He is a proud man.

It is quite discouraging that even a remembrance of the 5th anniversary of 9/11 is political fodder. Is it too much to ask that the people of this country come together for one day and put politics aside? Coming together as Americans, not Republicans and Democrats, would be a huge achievement and necessary in this long struggle against those hell bent to destroy us.

Whether or not you believe the war in Iraq is a part of the war on terrorism, the inclusion of the war into the president's speech Monday night to the nation is acceptable without being partisan. The president believes the war in Iraq is the central front of the war on terrorism now. He remains steadfast in his belief that the people of Iraq are worthy of basic human rights and freedom. A flourishing democracy in Iraq will lay the foundation for other democracies in the region. None of these ideas are new and the president has carried the same message since 9/11/2001. You may not agree with this premise and that's what makes our country great. No one is afraid of voicing opposition. We are a free people.

Now, if the president took partisan political shots in his speech, that would be a different matter. He didn't point out Senator Rockefeller's statement that Iraq would be ok with Saddam still in power now. Even though he had the same intelligence the president and his staff had, as he is on the Senate Intelligence Committee, and he voted for the policy of regime change, ousting Saddam, during the Clinton administration and voted in favor of going into Iraq.

The president didn't point out the fact that Senator Harry Reid, the minority leader in the Senate, bragged to an audience at a fundraiser that he had "killed" the Patriot Act, a vital tool in the war on terrorism.

The president remained above the fray. The speech was worthy of the occasion. He struck the right chord.

"Five years after that awful day, it's time for all Arab-Americans, and Arabs around the world, to protest against Islamic fascism, to raise our voices - and, where necessary, our arms - against these tyrants until their plague of terror has been driven from the face of the earth forever." - Emilio Karim Dabul, freelance writer and PR consultant living in New Jersey, author of an op-ed entitled "One Arab's Apology". The op-ed ran in the New York Post 9/12/2006