Today is the fourth anniversary of September 11. The day
when America watched in shock and awe as the icons of the New York skyline
quickly crumbled to the ground. It is the one day where we can finger the actual
change in America’s goals and defenses.

Since 9-11 America has focused on one threat. That threat
is terrorism. Since 9-11 we have been constantly put on elevated states of alert
for the possibility of terrorist attacks on our homeland. This is something that
has subsided this year.

In May of this year, former Homeland Security Director Tom
Ridge told
USA Today reporters that the color coded fiasco we called the terror
threat level was being loosely elevated.

“More often than not we were the least inclined to raise
it, Sometimes we disagreed with the intelligence assessment. Sometimes we
thought even if the intelligence was good, you don’t necessarily put the country
on (alert). … There were times when some people were really aggressive about
raising it, and we said, ‘For that?’ “

Now we are on the anniversary of the day that conceived
this terror alert plan and we are not under an elevated state. For the first
anniversary since that infamous day four years ago, we are walking around in
more calm because we are not faced with that alarming yellow.

Is this by chance a benefit of toppling Saddam? While the
President would love nothing more than for us to believe that, the answer could
not be more wrong.

This President, who preaches about government reform and
accountability, has turned our most critical government agencies into political
dump grounds for cronies. In a time after we saw the unthinkable happen in New
York, we now have the department responsible for responding filled with
unqualified supporters of the President.

The fact is we have A President who enjoys leading by fear.
If people are afraid of their own mortality then his agenda is easier to
promote. Katrina woke people up from the fears that the President continually
warns about and changed the attention back to the most determined threat against
our nation – Mother Nature.

Yesterday it was reported that the Pentagon has completed
plans to move us to a pre-emptive plan on using nuclear weapons against
terrorists. A couple weeks ago, this announcement would have sent shock around
the country. We are now in a post Katrina America, and the shock of this news
effect of this news is greatly subdued.

This has led me to think that this is the new terror level
threat that can get Americans back on the track of leading life in fear.

There are actually two benefits to the timely release of
this new strike plan. The first is the fact that a majority of opponents are now
too focus on the aftermath of Katrina to question this new response. The second
is the people who still keep their attention on the day to day operation of our
government may once again be reminded of terrorism and start leading life in
fear.

We see that the President and his administration is ready
to carry on with “business as usual” and try to get Americans attention back to
the threat of terrorism and turn a back side to natural disasters.

This being the anniversary of 9-11, we can honor the memory
of those who perished on that dreadful morning best by insuring our government
is going to put aside political quarrelling  and work to better protect its
people. We do not need commissions that are composed of career politicians to
look into the failings of what went wrong last week. Those people are best
suited for deciding on consequences and changes of the failings. We owe it to
the people who died last week, and those who died on 9-11 to have an independent
committee formed which is composed of professionals that can look through
partisanship and get to the heart of the matter. People say this is not a time
for political arguing. I could not agree more. This is a time for the best minds
in the country to come together and work on a plan for the future.