"It matters not if the terrorist is home-grown, as was McVeigh, or driven by religious fervor, as were the 9/11 terrorists"

J.C. WATTS: We can't forget the past or we'll repeat it

Eleven years ago on April 19, Timothy McVeigh parked a rented moving van in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City.

He chose a parking place closest to the always busy Social Security office on the first floor, and a day-care center in which the most innocent among us were happily playing just one floor above.


At 9:02 a.m., McVeigh lit a fuse in the truck in which he and fellow anti-government zealot Terry Nichols had constructed a 4,800-pound fertilizer bomb, and he ran like a coward.

Seconds later, 167 people -- whom McVeigh tried and found guilty in his court of one -- lost their lives because they worked or did business in a federal government building.

A nurse who bravely volunteered at the bomb site to help in triage efforts was struck in the head by a piece of falling debris, and also was killed.

One hundred sixty-eight souls -- not including three unborn children -- were lost in a senseless home-grown terrorist vendetta.

We Americans don't think much of McVeigh. I'm sure we can all agree on that. But he is revered by others who would like to see the United States destroyed.

Zacarias Moussaoui thinks McVeigh was pretty special. The Daily Oklahoman reported this past week that Moussaoui considers McVeigh to be "the greatest American." Indeed, when asked by a federal prosecutor in the sentencing phase of his trial if he was familiar with McVeigh, the 9/11 co-conspirator without remorse described McVeigh as "the one who wanted to strike the federal government."

McVeigh coldly conspired to kill 168 innocent Americans. I'm guessing he had wished it had been more. Moussaoui's buddies took out four airplanes and two of the tallest buildings in the world. They only wished to do more of the same.

Moussaoui said he's glad to have caused pain. He smiled as Rudy Giuliani and others testified as to how brutal 9/11 was. He says if he testifies truthfully, God will help him avoid execution.

After Moussaoui's confession, I am perplexed as to why people are softening on their resolve against terrorism. It seems that some of our friends and neighbors still don't understand that evil people want to do evil things to the United States.

Many are now making political hay out of the mistakes that have been made in war, politicizing the loss of life and using surveys to create an agenda about real security. To paraphrase a famous movie line, I hope the detractors will "show me the plan" before they pull the rug out from under our troops, and from under an emerging democracy in Iraq.

I see that re-enlistment figures for the U.S. Army are up -- 15 percent ahead of its goal for the year. This should tell even the most jaded observer that the men and women on the ground understand the seriousness of the job and recognize the success we're having. They want to finish the job. But the politicians and the press who want to take every chance available to make President Bush look bad, also hurt America with their posturing.

Is being critical of President Bush anti-American? Of course not. But subverting the effort here and abroad in the middle of a war emboldens the enemy and disheartens those fighting for us. Many took delight in hounding Bush when he dubbed Iran, Iraq and North Korea the Axis of Evil. Few major news outlets have reported this, but it has now been determined that Iraq was, in fact, shopping for uranium in Niger. And of course, no one can now doubt that Iran is pursuing evil.

We are in a war with evil people, and those on the ground know we're going in the right direction.

Moviegoers in New York were disturbed recently to see a trailer for the upcoming movie about United Flight 93. Some shouted "too soon!" when confronted with the images of that dreadful day. With all due respect to those touched by the terror of 9/11, it's not too soon. To the contrary, it's not soon enough. Our memories of the past horrors seem to have faded.

The philosopher George Santayana has been credited as saying, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." I wish I had said that.

As an Oklahoman serving in Congress on that April day 11 years ago, I saw first-hand the gruesome results of terrorism. It matters not if the terrorist is home-grown, as was McVeigh, or driven by religious fervor, as were the 9/11 terrorists.

America must not forget our past, or we will surely repeat it.


J.C. Watts (JCWatts01@jcwatts.com), chairman of J.C. Watts Companies, a business consulting group, is former chairman of the Republican Conference of the U.S. House, where he served as an Oklahoma representative from 1995 to 2002. His column appears twice monthly in the Review-Journal.


[Timothy McVeigh]
[9/11]
[Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building ]
[Terry Nichols ]
[Zacarias Moussaoui]
[Rudy Giuliani]

[Iraq, Niger]
[President Bush]