With the Navy Seals played by active duty . . . Navy Seals!

Get on your knees, you mo fo’s and thank God that great men like these are doing violence on your behalf.

In commemoration of this tragic, hallowed day I have posted thoughts and remembrances September 11th of 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009. In last year’s post I finally achieved perspective of how to think about those that died on this day:

Photo Credit: Richard Drew, APOut walking the dog early this am I worked on a remembrance for this hallowed day. Of all the images that I could have picked the one at left, Falling Man, is the most illustrative. Each of the 2,977 who died that day met their fate alone, as individuals, meeting their maker one-on-one, no matter if large numbers of them perished in the same instant.

Death is the most personal experience one has after birth. For these fated 2,977, the radical Islamic jihadists that brought down the World Trade Center towers, who crashed a jumbo jet into the Pentagon, who tried, and failed thank God, to hit either the Capitol or the White House, took from them and their loved ones all that they could have ever been. From the rest of us, they took what ever innocence about the world we had left — at least from those of us that haven’t refused to grow up.

Truth be told, we ALL know some, if not far too many, who even yet refuse to be the grownup. Anyone that professes the belief that is we just make nice with the Islamic Jihadists they will leave us alone. If we support their economies and lift them out of 3rd World poverty they will stop preaching their radicalized religion of hatred for Israel and the West. If we just had a compassionate Commander-in-Chief that would show proper respect (bow down to one of their kings) and “apologize” to the Arabic world for all our “sins” against them by the evil “BushCo” efforts to root out and kill Al Qaeda and Taliban Jihadis we would never have to fear a repeat of 9/11/2001.

Guess someone over there in radical Islam land didn’t get the memo. Yesterday 77 U.S. troops were wounded by a Taliban truck bomb. In a real-life “24″ scenario our FBI and other agencies are looking for would be terrorists that want to remember this day in another way, with truck bombs on bridges and in tunnels in NC and D.C. — and two of those they are looking for are American citizens.

This day will play out and eventually just be over, just as September 11, 2001 eventually became 9/12 . . . and we hope and pray that no violence will interfere with the many ceremonies and rememberances planned for today. Still, I can’t get that image of “Falling Man” out of my head. It initially was shown everywhere, then mostly disappeared, as did the video of the “hundreds” who jumped, or fell, or were blow out of the buildings; who decided to decree their own manner of death instead of being burned alive. In September of 2009 Tom Junod wrote about this “censorship” in Esquire Magazine and ends with this:

Is Jonathan Briley the Falling Man? He might be. But maybe he didn’t jump from the window as a betrayal of love or because he lost hope. Maybe he jumped to fulfill the terms of a miracle. Maybe he jumped to come home to his family. Maybe he didn’t jump at all, because no one can jump into the arms of God.

Oh, no. You have to fall.

Yes, Jonathan Briley might be the Falling Man. But the only certainty we have is the certainty we had at the start: At fifteen seconds after 9:41 a.m., on September 11, 2001, a photographer named Richard Drew took a picture of a man falling through the sky — falling through time as well as through space. The picture went all around the world, and then disappeared, as if we willed it away. One of the most famous photographs in human history became an unmarked grave, and the man buried inside its frame — the Falling Man — became the Unknown Soldier in a war whose end we have not yet seen. Richard Drew’s photograph is all we know of him, and yet all we know of him becomes a measure of what we know of ourselves. The picture is his cenotaph, and like the monuments dedicated to the memory of unknown soldiers everywhere, it asks that we look at it, and make one simple acknowledgment.

That we have known who the Falling Man is all along.

To paraphrase Pogo, “. . . The Falling Man is US”.

If we aren’t in the End Times, then it sure is a fine rehearsal . . .

Muslim Brotherhood text reveals scope of radical creed; 'Global Islamic conquest'...

After listening to Frank Gaffney‘s comments on Obama’s seeming push to cater to Muslim sensibilities and our POTUS’ differing approaches to handling the Iranian riots (where the rioters were asking for true freedom from the strictures of radical Islam) and the almost immediate insistence of the call on Mubarak to leave immediately (which could destabilize Egypt and deliver it into the hands of the Muslim Brotherhood), see this on Drudge today was more than a little unnerving . . . Mandatory Arabic Classes Coming To Some Texas Schools; ‘Language Of The Future’…

Some Students at Mansfield ISD schools could soon be learning Arabic as a required language. The school district wants students at select schools to take Arabic language and culture classes as part of a federally funded grant.

The Foreign Language Assistance Program (FLAP) grant was awarded to Mansfield ISD last summer by the U.S. Department of Education.

As part of the five-year $1.3 million grant, Arabic classes would be mandatory at Cross Timbers Intermediate School and Kenneth Davis Elementary School. The program would also be optional for students at T. A. Howard Middle School and Summit High School.

Parents at Cross Timbers say they were caught off-guard by the program, and were surprised the district only told them about it in a meeting Monday night between parents and Mansfield ISD Superintendent Bob Morrison.

Caught off guard — if Gaffney’s analysis is correct, we all are . . .

Hey, I’m not flyin’ this week, but if I was — those X-rays would be lookin’ mighty fine . . . just sayin’!

Photo Credit: Richard Drew, APOut walking the dog early this am I worked on a remembrance for this hallowed day. Of all the images that I could have picked the one at left, Falling Man, is the most illustrative. Each of the 2,977 who died that day met their fate alone, as individuals, meeting their maker one-on-one, no matter if large numbers of them perished in the same instant.

Death is the most personal experience one has after birth. For these fated 2,977, the radical Islamic jihadists that brought down the World Trade Center towers, who crashed a jumbo jet into the Pentagon, who tried, and failed thank God, to hit either the Capitol or the White House, took from them and their loved ones all that they could have ever been. From the rest of us, they took what ever innocence about the world we had left — at least from those of us that haven’t refused to grow up.

I’ve been far more eloquent about this day in the past: here, here and here.

Over at Ace, they have 18 videos covering the entire day.

Michelle Malkin is pretty worked up and challenges us to keep it real and NEVER FORGET!

At 8:46am this morning, nine years ago, murderous jihadists crashed American Airlines Flight 11 into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.

At 9:03am this morning, nine years ago, murderous jihadists crashed United Airlines Flight 175 into the South Tower of the World Trade Center.

At 9:37am this morning, nine years ago, murderous jihadists crashed American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon.

At 10:15am this morning, nine years ago, the official notification of the downing of United Airlines Flight 93 into a field at Shanksville, Pa. by murderous jihadists was received by the feds.

This is a day to honor the 2,977 innocent men, women, and children slaughtered by evil Islamic jihadists — and to resolve that “Never again” remains America’s operational stance, not an empty slogan.

Let nothing overshadow their memories today.

I for one will never forget . . .