The Anchoress

My mailbox is overflowing (I can’t keep up) with people mailing things about 9/11, or about Iraq, Bill Clinton, WMD - and much of it is interesting, some of it is annoying. So, thanks to my readers, here is a round-up:

Start with this must-see video - listen to what these people were saying in 2002, and 2003 about Iraq, Saddam and WMD and square it with what they say today. The left won’t like it, but they can’t say it’s a lie. Well, they can - reality is just a concept to some, after all. But the truth is…the Clinton Administration was the first to link Al Qaeda to Iraq, as both Flopping Aces and Siggy note. And Flopping Aces has the magazine cover to prove it.

I am not watching The Path to 9/11 - as you can tell, since I am posting - my son is watching football with friends and we only have one television…and frankly, I’ve read so much about the thing this week I’m sort of overdosed on it. Hugh Hewitt notes that the left is in a fury because the thing is being shown. Glenn Reynolds watched it and thinks the Dems would have been better off not bringing attention to it. He and Blue Crab Boulevard were struck by the “Nightline” which followed and believe everyone is basically going to wonder what - just WHAT - they are hiding.

If you’ve watched it and you feel like you’ve missed something, the excerpted scenes are here, apparently. I tried to watch one and found it pretty dull-going. You may think differently. Captain Ed says the Dem meltdown over this movie exposes their totalitarian streak for the world to see. Btw, some lefties are now threatening the safety and family of the filmmaker. Something I believe we would have heard about had Michael Moore had to endure the same. I have always felt that the biggest effect of Dubya’s presidency was to inspire so many, both foreign and domestic, to show us who they really are.

Ann Althouse has good commentary on all of that and on the myopia of bloggers trying to kill free speech.

Wuzzadem has a commemorative video.

And in case you’ve forgotten, here are some shots from Ground Zero taken on September 13, 2001. H/T Larwyn

Mark Steyn says our enemies still hide in plain sight

While they do, of course, life goes on, and not everyone is in mourning tonight. I’m not saying that everyone needs to be wearing sackcloth and ashes this weekend, but I think President Clinton might have held off on the guffawing fund raiser disguised as yet another “birthday party” for just these couple of days, don’t you?

And what better place to vent than at a belated birthday party for former Democratic president Bill Clinton?

While Saturday night’s party, also attended by Clinton’s wife Hillary and their daughter Chelsea, amounted to a thinly veiled fundraiser, it was also prime time for Bush bashing.

There’s Bill Clinton - ever the sensitive statesman - clearly haw-haw-hawing along. And Billy Crystal - best pal of Rob Reiner - who forgets that half the country he wants to appeal to is…ummm…Republican. Stupid. I imagine this guy would think him hilarious, though.

That picture of Crystal and Clinton almost reminds me of the Wellstone memorial picture, with Bill Clinton whooping it up with Hillary, Jesse Jackson and others. Which, for some reason, reminds me of how much we have forgotten about Sandy Berger and the sort of man he is and the sort of things he did. Please, please go read Betsy Newmark’s reminder; it is masterful. (H/T Ed Driscoll.

The press never did want to look in Sandy Berger’s direction when he shoved papers from the National Archives down his pants…and they completely accepted it when Bill Clinton, told of Berger’s crime laughed it off. “Haw, haw, haw, that’s Sandy, so forgetful, haw, haw, haw.” All we can do is hope that someday that seriously under-studied episode is fully brought out into the light, and that it bites the right asses.

Dr. Bob remembers the face of evil in the very smoke of the WTC and links to some moving pictures.

This vet says if we pull out now, it’s all for naught. Of course it is. If we pull out now we admit that America cannot endure things when they are difficult, and that she will allow her sons and daughters to die for nothing. And if we pull out, then America will be responsible for all the blood that follows.

Michelle Malkin has some 9/11 myth debunking going on over at her place. A lot, but worth reading.

Wretchard has a post full of despair that you will not want to read…but you should:

If I had to find one word to represent the mood five years after September the 11th it would be resignation. Whatever the campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq have signified, they did not, as some on the Left might think, represent experiences which foreshadow a return to the 1990s. What they have proved is that the cracks in the world run too deep for anyone to predict where they may lead.[...]
Our tools have converged but our souls have diverged. And intentionally too, for if the multicultural policies of the last century meant anything it was that we got to keep our own prejudices. The result is that while we all have cell phones some use them to call their friends and others use them to set off IEDs; where we can all fly but some to earn a living and others to make a religious statement. [...]
But the greatest event of all of the past five years has been the slow hardening of the human heart, as each of us sets his face against the unknown, our household goods and gods sheltering pitifully behind; an event undetectable save for the slow, crepitating sound of walls setting solid across the expanse of our global and tribal world.

I thought AJ was off-track when he said that Rockefeller wants Saddam back in power…but then I read this stuff from DU at Flopping Aces. Instapundit has more on Rockefeller’s flip.

Do not miss Wizbang’s time-stamped photoretrospective, today and they have some terrific links, too, like this one.
Neo-neocon takes a look leftward and wonders, who is afraid and who is plain angry?

And I agree, along with FDR, that “only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment.” I happen to think the Left fits the definition of “foolish optimist” in denying the dark realities of the present-day Islamist totalitarian threat. The Left, of course, thinks people such as myself to be foolish optimists in denying the dark realities of the threats posed by the would-be dictators Bush and Rove, and that we are timid and cowering fraidy cats in assuming that people such as Ahmadinejad mean exactly and precisely what they say.

Rick Moran says the day defines the Dems.

OEC has a memorial up for Fr. Mychal Judge -the first “official” 9/11 death. In CBS’ excellent documentary, “9/11″ you can see him blessing firefighters before they enter the burning towers, and then pacing the lobby of one tower in prayer, some twenty minutes or so before his death. Today we remember many, by name.

Don’t forget to check in with Pajamas Media they’ll have the definitive round-up of 9/11 information, retrospectives, news and blog items.

And remember, it didn’t all start on 9/11. And it won’t end as long as the enemy sees us divided and unserious.

Today’s recommended books:

Related:
Path to 9/11: Ace readers insightful comments
Matthew David Garvey, FDNY, USMC
Nevada Muslim stares down al-Muhajer
How baseball helped America post 9/11
Where did WMD Intel come from?
Able Danger and the Sandy Berger Connection
SCA: We went to war because Bill Clinton told the truth!