Remember the USS Cole and the Terrorists Who Killed Our Men
By Andrew Cochran
Today is the fifth anniversary of the attack on USS Cole in the harbor at Eden, Yemen, the last small-scale warning by al Qaeda of its intention to kill Americans before the 9/11 attacks. We should pause for a moment of prayer today for the 17 sailors who were killed, the 39 who were injured, the victim's families and friends. We must NEVER FORGET the terrorist metwork which perpetrated this act of war, and we should renew the resolve to eliminate, one way or another, all like-minded Islamic extremists who would destroy Western civilization and impose their diabolical view of Islam. The USS Cole was one of the numerous al Qaeda attacks in the 1990s that EVERYONE in the West, not just in the United States, not just one political party or another, ignored at our peril. Maybe, just maybe, if we had pursued the perpetrators of the USS Cole bombing vigorously and without hindrance (don't get me started on that one), we might have been able to stop Mohammed Atta and his gang. Good sites today: the official USS Cole Memorial Dedication site - the DOD USS Cole Commission Report, released 1/9/01 - "Sisyphus" blog post - Michelle Malkin's post - Alan Gray's tribute.