Each September 11 anniversary summons passive voice headlines that even in many conservative circles begin with, “America was attacked.”

America was not attacked. Islamic terrorists attacked America. These terrorists were not a natural force. What happened was not a structural failure due to events beyond our control. It was a planned attack in the name of a particular ideology and strategy.

We were attacked by Islamic terrorists in order to expand the power of Islam and to bring into being an Islamic Caliphate.

The people who attacked us were devout Muslims. If you doubt that, read Mohammed Atta’s instructions to the hijackers which mention, “Allah” more than anything else, and assure them that they are acting in Allah’s name, and to bring victory for Allah. They did not misunderstand Islam. They understood it very well and acted in response to historic imperatives and religious conviction.

Our enemies are serious about what they do. We need to be just as serious.

It is important to remember and honor the victims. But it’s just as important to defeat the ideology that killed them. Liberals transform acts of war into tragedies and then into incidents. (The NAACP’s latest effort to commemorate September 11 called it an “incident”.) The commemorations focus on grief and the memorials they erect insert empty spaces, flowing pools, and absences that conveys nothing except pain. They weaken us, rather than strengthening us, and they divert attention from what happened and why it happened.

Past generations understood how to honor valor and heroism. Our current generations have become trapped in their own pain.

Since 9/11, the population of potential terrorists in this country has astronomically increased, inducted its members into the House of Representatives, and gained far more political influence than it ever had. All this means that we are a long way from claiming victory.

Killing occasional terrorists abroad doesn’t change the balance of power. Not when it’s shifting on our own shores.

That’s the danger of retreating into the passive voice, of forgetting that we were not attacked, but that we have enemies, and those enemies are still coming for us.