Operation AXIOM: 9/11

Sixteen years ago to the day, 11 September 2001, the greatest mass-casualty act of terrorism in American history was perpetrated by nineteen agents of the Salafi jihadist terrorist organization al-Qaeda ("the Base"). Four civilian airliners were hijacked & deliberately crashed into three civilian & military buildings, one into each of the "Twin Towers" of the World Trade Center in New York, New York & a third into the Pentagon, the headquarters of the armed forces of the United States in Arlington, Virginia; the fourth hijacked airliner—the intended target of which has never been positively identified but which is suspected to have been the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.—crashed in Stonycreek Township, Pennsylvania amidst a revolt of the passengers against their hijackers. Nearly three thousand persons died in the four pincers of the attack, including all nineteen terrorists; thousands of others were wounded or psychologically traumatized.

The "War on Terror," the war against non-state Salafi jihadist organizations, started before 9/11, but took on an entirely different character in the aftermath, with the United States engaging in the largest-scale sustained military operations since the Vietnam War over a quarter-century earlier. The war against the Taliban (the "Students") stills rages in Afghanistan, where al-Qaeda had been based 'til 2001 from where it launched the 9/11 attack. The Iraq War raged from 2003-2011, when the United States unilaterally withdrew, leaving a power vacuum into which stepped the Islamic State of Iraq & the Levant (I.S.I.L., A.K.A. I.S.I.S.; or just the Islamic State, A.K.A. Daesh, the Arabic pronunciation of the initials I.S.), which exploited the Syrian Civil War that sprung from the Arab Spring to seize significant portions of both Iraq & Syria & itself declare a caliphate. The United States has recommitted blood & treasure to reclaim the Daesh-ruled territories in Iraq, territories the United States had unilaterally abandoned in 2011. Around the world, the fight continues against al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorist cells & Daesh-inspired "lone wolf" terrorists, with no end in sight. But never forget that this is not a war of choice; whatever mistakes the United States has made in conducting the War on Terror, the necessity of conducting this war was forced upon our great republic by that "day of fire."

9/11 occurred sixteen years ago. For scale, 2017 is as distant from 2001 (though it doesn't seem very distant at all) as 2001 was from 1985, an interval that encompassed much of my childhood & thus seemed like a far greater span of time. Three thousand persons died & untold mental anguish & economic loss was inflicted in the worst act of terrorism in our nation's history, a day we dare never to forget, 11 September 2001, sixteen years ago today.

The Wayback Machine Tour of 9/11 (partial)
I have been dreadfully negligent in observing the National Day of Service & Remembrance, Patriot Day, seemingly only doing so approximately every other year. This is an odd numbered year, which fits the pattern of commemoration.

Patriot Day '15
Patriot Day '13
Patriot Day '11

Bonus! Song o' Patriot Day
Aaron Tippin, "Where the Stars and Stripes and the Eagle Fly" from Where the Stars and Stripes and the Eagle Fly (The Last Angry Man)