Renewing Our Resolve

Amid flags at half-mast and a capital city shrouded in clouds, the sixth anniversary of September 11, 2001 arrived quietly in a nation still divided over the war it provoked.

From Ground Zero to the broken ring of the Pentagon, we can't help but remember how many of the fallen were heroes that day. They were men and women on planes, in skyscrapers, charging up stairwells, and digging through rubble. As diverse as they were, the victims had one thing in common--they were all patriots. Today, that of selfless determination is still very much alive in our brave troops overseas. Despite months of bickering and distractions at home, our soldiers have carried out their mission valiantly, many of them making the ultimate sacrifice while their fellow citizens, speaking from the safety and comfort they provide, feel free to question what these soldiers are giving their lives for.

While the news is trained on the war, few seem to remember why we're fighting it, not for Iraq but for the liberty Americans so quickly take for granted. Many in this country have forgotten that the best way to honor those who died on September 11, and since, is by upholding the commitment to do everything we can to keep it from happening again. Abandoning the war would be to abandon America's identity.

Al-Queda's long-term goal is to convert Americans and other Westerners to its extreme version of Islam. This is the ultimate struggle between good and evil, the long-standing battle for our ideals of faith, family, and freedom. In the end, this war is not only a military conflict, but a spiritual one. And the entire Western world hangs in the balance.

Let's pray, six years later, that as the stone walls of the Pentagon have been rebuilt and construction is under way at the site of the World Trade Center, so too are we rebuilding our resolve that those who have died in our nation's service will be honored not just in memorial remembrances but in victory over tyranny.