*The following post may contain adult language.*

My phone rang, stirring me from sleep. I was groggy and still very tired from the previous night of cooking out and drinking beers, like every Monday night during football season. I ignored the phone that rang several times, then stopped. I rolled back over to go to sleep. It started to ring again. I got up angrily and thought, "Who the hell's calling me so early?" It was about a quarter after nine. I got out of bed, answered the phone and had the following conversation:

"Holy shit, dude! We're going to war!"
"What are you talking about?" I said, thinking this was just a freind's prank.
"We're under attack! They're blowing up New York!"
I went to the living room and turned on the television.
"What do you mean?"
"I don't know, but we'll be bombing the shit out of somebody real soon! I'm coming over, I'll see you in a minute."

I hung up the phone and sat on the couch. I flipped through a few channels. Every station was covering it. I wasn't exactly sure what I was seeing. A car pulled up into the lawn and a few short seconds later, my friend came flying through the door. There was excitement on his face and in his voice. I tried to ask him why the towers were burning, but he just went on about being attacked and going to war. He was spouting off about revenge for an event whose magnitude was not yet apparent to me. I couldn't understand his anxiety. Obviously something had happened that must have been horrible, as both of the Twin Towers - once part of my own childhood skyline - were on fire. Then I saw it.

Several times I watched the video replayed. The same plane flying into the same building. "Are you fuckin' kidding me?!" I believe that was my initial reaction. The inhumanity seemed impossible as my friend explained to me what he had been seeing and hearing all morning. Then reports came of a fire at the Pentagon. Even while stunned, everything began to sink in. Anxiety grew. Emotions were muddled by anger.

In just over an hour, I watched events unfold that would shape the world we live in today. I saw planes crash, I saw buildings collapse, and I watched people die. The morning seemed to drag on endlessly. The Towers seemed to be burning for days. For most of us, our daily rituals or inconveniences were no longer important.

Throughout the morning, initial confusion turned to virtual clarity. My friend had it right. All along, underneath the shock and disbelief, we knew we were under attack. We were being attacked not by bombs or missiles, not by a country or its military, but by terrorists with an ideology and culture of hate, violence, and death. These terrorists targeted a specific group of people. They did not seek to kill black or white, rich or poor, man or woman, democrat or republican. They killed Americans. They targeted people that don't share their preference of oppression and tyranny. For some time afterwards, the country was united and determined to exact revenge on these murderers. When we approached our war with the Taliban regime and Al-Qaeda, we eagerly awaited the long overdue wrath of the United States military. Support was unbelievable. The country had a deserved air of righteousness. What ever happened to that feeling?

Five years later, life is back to normal for many people. The unity has faded. Politics has resumed. Some people want to forget. I, like most people, remember that morning like it happened today. As long as I have a pulse, I will never forget. I will not forget the heroics of the rescue workers. I will not forget the heroics of the passengers on Flight 93 that prevented another attack in our nation's capital. I will not forget any of the images captured on that day. Most of all, I will not forget the cowardice displayed before the world by the terrorists who claim to be fighting for a noble cause. When I woke that day, I never imagined destruction on that great a scale could happen here in the blink of an eye. After all, we're the United States of America, things like that don't happen to us. When America woke that day, we finally realized the severity of this threat. I fear that moment of clarity has dissolved.

There are two sides in our current war against Islamic fascism. On one side, there are the people and nations who love life, freedom and prosperity. On the other, there are the people who love to hate us and want to destroy us. Make no mistake, that is their primary goal. The freedom of the world depends on the outcome of our confrontation with these fascists. We cannot allow ourselves to be victims of tyranny. We must stand up and fight for ourselves until we have no fight left in us, then we must fight even more. It is imperative that our resolve greatly exceeds our enemies'. Never forget their determination and their capabilities. For America, there can only be one outcome: Victory.

For radical Islam, Tony Blair said it best. "Defeat it, or be defeated by it. And defeat it we must."