Sunday Newscape Magazine

“America the Forgetful” - “Media Amnesia”

Brigitte Gabriel - Terrorism Expert, Best Selling Author, War Survivor

In late August 2001 I had an opportunity to be featured on a morning television show in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This was a huge opportunity for me and I jumped at the chance and planned accordingly. I knew going through New York City would be no easy task so I wanted to arrive the day before.

What should have been a four hour trip turned into a seven hour ordeal due to the traffic in the heart of New York City. As I sat in a never ending sea of cars I noticed an amazing site off in the distance. The Twin Towers stood broadly just off to my left. The site was unforgettable as the warm afternoon sun gleamed off its beautiful facade accented by a hazy cloud cover. It was something that took my breath away and made my trip something I will never forget. Little did I know that in a few weeks these symbols of America would be gone forever.

What happened on that horrific day in September 2001 changed America, but as time goes by I often ask myself,” Did it really?” Apparently the media thinks so. Their main concern is partisan politics, redundant gossip, and scaring Americans about an economy that has not been the same since.

September 11^th changed millions of lives and killed thousands of people in the most barbaric and gruesome ways imaginable. I watched those videos of people falling and saw the result as they hit the ground. You don’t forget something like that, and with respect to those who perished, we shouldn’t.

A good reality check for American should not be about tax breaks or their next stimulus check, but a real possibility of another 9-11 like attack happening. Should another attack occur on our soil no amount of money printed will stimulate anything because this economy will collapse out of fear. The nebulous approach people on Capital Hill and the media have presented is not getting the job done. That is why I invited an expert this week to offer facts on something that most likely will happen again.

Brigitte Gabriel knows why America was attacked. Most important, she knows the history of terrorism and how terrorists think. This Lebanese Civil War survivor was just a child when she experienced the atrocities of war and has the scars to prove it.

I was fortunate enough to have her write a piece for this column about what the media still considers “old news.” My only hope is that her candid analysis will educate you and offer facts that the majority of Americans have no knowledge of.

Ms. Gabriel writes:

I think there is more than one reason for what appears to be a collective “media amnesia” regarding September 11^th.

One is that many in the media got so caught up in their rage at President Bush on issues like the Iraq War, Guantanamo and warrantless wiretaps that at times it seems they forgot who the real enemy was!  A good example is the War in Iraq.  Regardless of what one thinks of President Bush’s decision to go to war, it is clear that the surge strategy worked magnificently.  But it took the media a long time to acknowledge that (some still don’t), and instead of writing about our enemies they wrote story after story about why Bush was wrong, how he was wrong, etc., etc. The successful elections held in Iraq recently were a testimony of our success in Iraq. The media was so determined to destroy George Bush and his credibility that they barely reported about the removal of 550 metric tons of "yellowcake" - the seed material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment - out of Iraq this past summer to Canada. The Canadian government purchased the yellow cake from the Iraqi government for top price and was a significant step toward closing the books on Saddam's nuclear legacy.

A second reason is political correctness run amok.  Too many in the media are either unable or unwilling to come to grips with the fact that we are not in a war against terror.  Terror is a tactic.  We are in a war against radical Islam and its followers who are intent, by whatever means possible, to subjugate the world to Islam.  This does not fit the politically correct narrative that so many in the media subscribe to.  It sounds too “intolerant.”  Surely, many in the media believe, there must be other explanations for terrorism against us.  They argue it’s our foreign policy, or our support of Israel, or poverty.  They forget that the most famous terrorist in the world Osama Bin Laden is a multi millionaire, most terrorists are college graduates, now the reason behind doctors in England willing to blow themselves up to kill their colleagues and patience in the hospitals in which they practiced. The excuse of poverty as you can see is out the window.

The problem with all of these alleged causes of terrorism is they don’t explain 1,400 years of Islamic terror against the peoples of North Africa, the Middle East, Asia Minor, and parts of Europe.  They don’t explain 40 years of terrorism perpetrated in the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries on the United States by the Barbary Pirates,  who were Muslim jihadists.  They don’t explain the radical Muslim destruction of my home country of Lebanon and the killing of thousands of Middle Eastern Christians in the name of Islam.  Muslims massacred Christians in Lebanon, Assyrians in Syria, Copts in Egypt, (these three groups are Arabs who speak the Arabic language and surely did not have a foreign policy supportive of Israel. They actually considered Israel the enemy). Armenians in Turkey who were butchered by knifes and swords before Israel even existed. Unfortunately, I don’t think very many people in the establishment media know or want to know the real history of Islamic conquest and terror.  So they impose a politically correct, multiculturalist’s slant on the news.

Sometimes political correctness is just plain annoying.  In this case, political correctness can kill us. We need to throw political correctness in the garbage where it belongs and start calling a spade a spade.

I think a third reason is human nature.  The further we get from 9/11, the easier it is to become complacent.  But our enemies have not gone away.  They continue to plan and organize.  As with political correctness, complacency is a luxury we can’t afford.

Brigitte Gabriel

Ms. Gabriel is the founder of Act! For America.org - A New York Times best seller of: They Must Be Stopped: Why We Must Defeat Radical Islam and How We Can Do It

An International Speaker Exclusively Represented by www.greatertalent.com

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