Senator Tom Brewer
43rd District
9-13-2019

“Some people did something.”

Last April, this is how Rep. Ilhan Omar, Freshman Democrat from Minnesota, referred to the 9/11 attacks which murdered nearly 3,000 Americans.

This remark, and the breathtaking ignorance and disrespect it represents, reminds me to never forget and always remember what happened that day. This is easy for me and millions of other Americans who will never forget where they were and what they were doing when the attacks happened. As for Ms. Omar, she was only 19 on the 9/11, a recent immigrant to the United States, largely ignorant of our country’s culture, history and traditions. I could almost forgive her for taking such a casually flippant attitude toward the 9/11 attacks. After all, her family fled one of the worst hell-holes on the planet. She knew nothing of freedom and liberty in our country. That said, she’s had plenty of time since then to reach a full understanding of what 9/11 meant to America.

In addition to members of the U.S. Congress being terrorist apologists, a lot has changed since September 11, 2001. We now have a whole generation of young people who have grown up since the attacks. In high schools across the country, students born before 9/11 are almost all gone. Those of us who lived through this terrible time have a duty to teach our young Americans what happened and why. I visited the Hyannis High School on 9/11 this year and spoke with the students about it. All but two had been born after 9/11.

Since 9/11, our country has been involved in one armed conflict or another for 18 years now. Young people today have never known their country not to be at war. On 9/11 I was a brand-new Lieutenant Colonel in my 24th year of military service without ever being sent to a shooting war. Most of my life and all of my Army career up to that point, the United States had been at peace.

Today, soldiers who joined the military after 9/11 are nearing the end of a 20 year career that has known nothing but war. One of the most recent casualties in Afghanistan was a soldier who was on his 4th combat deployment to that country. 9/11 has transformed the country I grew up in to something completely different. Islamic Extremists caused this transformation – not “somebody.” They murdered nearly 3,000 innocent civilians in cold blood on 9/11. Over 7,000 American military servicemen have been killed in action fighting this fanatical death cult so far. Hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians have been murdered all over the world in the name of this twisted view of Islam. They “did something” alright, and they are still doing it.

If we forget the lessons 9/11 has taught us, we are doomed to repeat them.

Please contact my office with any comments, questions or concerns. Email me at tbrewer@leg.ne.gov, mail a letter to Sen. Tom Brewer, Room #1423, P.O. Box 94604, Lincoln, NE 68509, or call us at (402) 471-2628.