Mark Steyn has seen the plans for a Flight 93 memorial, and doesn't like 'em. His most interesting observation comes at the top of the piece:
As UPI’s Jim Bennett wrote, “The Era of Osama lasted about an hour and a half or so, from the time the first plane hit the tower to the moment the General Militia of Flight 93 reported for duty.”But I also liked this:
Okay, let’s get all the “of courses” out of the way – of course, the overwhelmingly majority of Muslims aren’t terrorists; of course, we all know “Islam” means “peace”and “jihad” means “healthy-lifestyle lo-carb granola bar”; etc, etc.It gets SO tedious to have to explain that you understand the basic tenets of civilization ("Yes, Sen. Feinstein, I do understand that my lawyer wife is equal in dignity to myself.") before you advance your argument, and I'm glad he mocks it. Why do we have to do this? First, because there is no such thing as good will anymore, and your opponents will assume the worst of you; secondly, because everyone lives in the zone of feelings, so you have to tell people, "I'm not talking about you" so they don't burst into tears and tell the teacher you're being mean when you are simply engaging in civilized discourse. So in a 700-word column, you have to waste 100 telling the weanies not to cry. Of course, I don't mean any of the weanies reading this post, and I mean no insult to people chopping onions.
But to return to Steyn's point, about the proposed "Crescent of Embrace" (google it and see it's even worse than it sounds):
One would be unlikely even today to come across an Allied D-Day memorial so misconceived in its spirit of reconciliation as to be called the Swastika of Embrace. Yet Paul Murdoch, the architect, has somehow managed to produce a design whose two most obvious interpretations are a) a big nothing or b) a splendid memorial to the hijackers rather than their victims.I get tired of people concluding that if you think war is necessary, it's because you haven't understood your enemy. Didn't they see Independence Day? Isn't it possible the warrior has done a mind-meld with the enemy and realized his only thought is "kill-kill-kill-kill"? RTWT for more on that point and a great conclusion.
