The World and Everything in It - September 8, 2021

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Good morning!

The war on terror is twenty years in with America seemingly in retreat. What’s next?

NICK EICHER, HOST: That’s ahead on Washington Wednesday.

Also today World Tour.

Plus a 9/11 widow shares her story of loss and hope.

And waiting on the Lord with a peaceful heart as a loved one slips away.

REICHARD: It’s Wednesday, September 8th. This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

EICHER: And I’m Nick Eicher. Good morning!

REICHARD: Now time for the news. Here’s Kent Covington.

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Biden tours flood ravaged neighborhoods in Northeast » President Biden toured flood ravaged neighborhoods in New York and New Jersey on Tuesday. The remnants of Hurricane Ida mixed with a non-tropical front last week unleashing a devastating torrent of rain in the Northeast.

BIDEN: These waves crashed through these streets here, testing the aging infrastructure and taking lives. More lives were taken here than down in Louisiana.

Biden spoke after walking streets in New Jersey and then Queens in New York City, meeting with victims of the storm.

At least 46 people died in floodwaters in Northeastern states. Six people remain missing.

The president also took the opportunity to push for new spending. He said it’s important to not just rebuild devastated areas, but to build back better.

He wants the House to approve a roughly $1 trillion infrastructure package that has already cleared the Senate and he wants Congress to pass $3.5 trillion in additional spending.

Secretaries Blinken, Austin address U.S. personnel in Qatar » Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Tony Blinken met face to face on Tuesday with American troops, Afghan refugees, and officials at the U.S. embassy in Doha, Qatar.

Secretary Austin praised troops for standing in harm's way to airlift more than 124,000 people from the Kabul airport.

AUSTIN: You came together and you worked through some very difficult and demanding circumstances. I am proud of you. I am grateful for what you have done. Your country is proud of you. The president of the United States is proud of you.

And Secretary Blinken thanked all U.S. personnel for their bravery during the chaotic evacuation.

BLINKEN: To all of you, thank you, thank you, thank you for a job remarkably well done. That’s the good news. The bad news is this mission continues. We have more work to do. We’re determined to do it.

Evacuees plead for action: 'We are in some kind of jail' » Meantime, American veterans groups and others are pleading for U.S. and Taliban action on a weeklong standoff that has left hundreds of would-be evacuees stranded in Afghanistan.

These groups say several dozen Americans, along with a much larger number of U.S. green card holders and family members are stuck. They’re among those waiting to board pre-arranged charter flights but are being prevented from leaving.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday …

PSAKI: We’re working to see what we can do to get flights up and operational, not just from Kabul but from other regional airports in the country, because we know that’s also a part of getting individuals out who want to leave, including the remaining American citizens.

An employee of a U.S.-based nonprofit that works with Afghan women and girls, said those in her group have proper passports and visas, but that the Taliban are blocking them from leaving. She said—quote—“We think we are in some kind of jail.”

She said elderly American citizens and parents of Afghan-Americans in the U.S. are among those being blocked from boarding planes.

Texas Gov. signs voting bill into law » Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a hotly contested elections bill into law on Tuesday.

Democrats called the bill “voter suppression” legislation aimed at minorities. And Democratic lawmakers in the state House tried for months to sink the bill, but succeeded only in delaying its passage.

Republicans say the new law is designed to secure future elections and strengthen public confidence in the integrity of future voting. And Gov. Abbott on Tuesday pushed back against the charge that the law will make it harder for anyone to vote.

ABBOTT: It ensures that every eligible voter will have the opportunity to vote. One way that it achieves that is it provides even more hours of time for people to be able to go cast their vote.

But the law also tightens rules on late-night voting and requires voter identification with mail-in ballots, among other measures.

Already, opponents have targeted the law with at least three federal lawsuits.

The governor said he’s confident the law will stand up to legal challenges.

Idaho public health officials move to ration care amid COVID-19 crush » Idaho public health leaders have moved to begin rationing healthcare as COVID-19 cases overwhelm hospitals.

The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare announced Tuesday that they have activated—quote—“crisis standards of care.” They warned residents that they may not get the care they would normally expect if they need to be hospitalized.

The move came as the state's confirmed coronavirus cases skyrocketed in recent weeks. Idaho has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the U.S.

Nationally, the United States has now recorded more than 40 million COVID-19 cases.

I’m Kent Covington. Straight ahead: America’s 20-year war on terror.

Plus, waiting on God.

This is The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Wednesday, the 8th of September, 2021.

Thank you for joining us for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. It’s time for Washington Wednesday. Today, the War on Terror, 20 years later.

On September 20th, 2001, nine days after the deadly 9/11 attacks, President George W. Bush addressed a Joint Congress and declared war on terrorist groups the world over.

BUSH: Our war on terror begins with al-Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped, and defeated.

REICHARD: That can only mean even 20 years afterward, that war continues.

Well, joining us once again to provide more insight is James Carafano. He’s an expert on national security and foreign policy with the Heritage Foundation. Now a retired Lt. Col. in the U.S. Army, he formerly served on the Homeland Security Advisory Council. Colonel, good morning!

JAMES CARAFANO, GUEST: Good to be with you.

REICHARD: Many analysts say terrorism has metastasized and is more global than it ever was. So I want to begin by asking you about that. Has the terror threat changed since September 11th, 2001?

CARAFANO: Well, actually, if you would have called me 30 days ago, I would have given you a completely different answer. So if you think about the President's quote where he says, terrorists with global reach, and and I think that's right, that is what really concerns us. I mean, look, we're not going to get rid of evil in the world. But what we don't want is, is somebody to have the capacity to do a global campaign, and to have people across the globe, always worried about whether they're going to be safe in their beds at night. And and you say, Well, we've been at this for 20 years, how could you argue in the last 30 days, we're less safe than we were 20 years ago. And the reason for that is this look, it's just, it's not that hard to get into the global terrorism business, you don't need a 501(k), you don't need a big HR department.  It's mostly about people, and a limited amount of resources. And so the focus of taking a global terrorism isn't really on toppling regimes and defeating armies. It's really not focusing on on the core network of people that would want to perpetrate something like 9/11. And what happened in the last 30 days, as everybody knows, is we walked away from Afghanistan. And when we did that, the Taliban came back in. And the Taliban have a couple of key relationships. One is with a group called the Haqqani Network, which is a terrorist criminal organization that spans Afghanistan, Pakistan. And the other of course is al-Qaeda. The leadership has been hiding out in Iran, they're going to go back to Afghanistan, they're basically going to put the band back together, and that they will be every bit as dangerous as before. And the Taliban now are actually more dangerous hosts, because they have more money, they have more territory, they have more international recognition. And they have a much bigger and more powerful army thanks to us than they did on 9/11. The reality is, is the ability to plan the next 9/11 is probably stronger in Afghanistan now than it was on the first 9/11. And not to fearmonger because that's not what I'm doing here. But if you look at this from Al Qaeda, and the Haqqani networks perspective, they have to do it over 9/11. And they have to plant it in Afghanistan. And they have to let everybody knows it came out of Afghanistan, because they have to demonstrate to the world that they are powerful, that they are blessed by God, that they have redeemed their honor for the humiliation of being defeated and driven out by the United States. So the day that we walked out, Al Qaeda walked in, and they are already thinking about the next day on the calendar that we never forget.

REICHARD: James, what tools do we have to identify and head off terror threats from Afghanistan or anywhere else in the world for that matter?

CARAFANO: Well, that is really the way to do this. So the way to do this is to focus first on people, not threats, you know, people would always ask me, What do you worry about, like a dirty bomb or a car bomb? Or? And my answer was, look, 99% of a terrorist attack looks the same. Don't focus on the 1%. Like, where the guy's got a machete or machine gun, focus on the people and stopping the people. And, and you certainly defense help, so he can screen people at airports and secure the border and all that. But the most effective way to stop a terrorist attack is to go out and find the terrorists and get them before they attack. And so that's really going on the offensive, and that is good intelligence, good counterterrorism operations, good cooperation. And we can do that. And let's be honest, we did it pretty effectively for 20 years. I mean, if you actually look, I mean, we used to have a database, on Islamist terror attacks aimed at the United States plots, right, because most of them were not, actually, like 99% of them were not successful. But we stopped counting. And the reason why we stopped counting is because they stopped happening. Most of that was going out and deconstructing most of the people that would really come after you. And then you know, we just abruptly stopped, it's like, somebody that is sick. And they're taking course of antibiotics. And then they've got like three pills left. And they just don't they just stop taking them. And of course, the disease just roars back stronger than ever, or like somebody's fighting a forest fire and the fire goes out, so they just walk away. And then the embers just flare up and burn again. I mean, Afghanistan, what we were doing in Afghanistan, we weren't nation building. We were doing a lot of things, what we're doing is we were watching to make sure the sparks never ignited again. And so we had 2500 soldiers who had taken casualties in the year and a half, they were actually costing us very, very little cost us less to stay in Afghanistan in a year than it used to cost in a week. In America, the cost of staying in Afghanistan was a rounding error compared to the cost of what it costs us to actually leave. So we were taking no casualties. We were stopping the country from being a terrorist sanctuary. And we were doing it at a very tiny cost. This is actually a great benefit to Americans. Now we spent an enormous amount of money to leave. We were humiliated. And literally we are like the blinded Cyclops we have blinded ourselves and a bunch of things are going to happen in that part of the world that we're going to have no knowledge of until they show up in an American street.

REICHARD: ISIS was a group most people had never heard of until after the United States pulled out of Iraq. Many analysts say that President Obama pulled American troops out of the country too quickly and that gave rise to ISIS. How do you see that?

CARAFANO: I think that's, that's accurate. Look, this is actually when people ask me, because I think a lot of people are upset about Afghanistan. And they say, Well, how could this go so wrong? My answer usually is how did you think this was not going to happen? Because essentially, we have the same foreign policy team here that we had in the Obama administration. And they're doing the same things. They walked away from Iraq, we got ISIS, we put walked away from the Syrian deadline, we got a genocide, we walked away from Libya, we got Benghazi. I mean, they do this again and again and again. And you know, it's like pulling the safety net away. And then just seeing somebody falls, and then trying to go back and deal with the aftermath of this. It's, they're actually very risk averse. They're actually want to disengage from the world stage, they actually don't cooperate with allies. They just want to outsource everything to other people, and focus on securing the domestic political power here at home and you turn your back on your enemies, and not surprisingly, they stab you in the back.

REICHARD: Final question for you: U.S. officials often note that Iran is the leading state sponsor of terror. What role does Iran play in fueling global terrorism and what could we do specifically about that?

CARAFANO: Well, Iran funds kind of two kinds of terrorist activity, and they're actually a couple of states in the world, and that the Taliban will now be one of them, that use terrorism as a tool of statecraft. The Pakistanis do this. The Iranians do this more than ever, and it's it, they're really kind of two kinds. One is surrogates. So they fund the insurgency in Yemen, they fund Hezbollah, Hamas, they fund militias in Iraq, they fund terrorists in Syria, so they fund other people to attack their enemies. And the other is, is they go out and they kill people that against the regime. So recently, for example, they tried to kidnap an American journalist in America. A number of years ago, they they actually tried to hire people to put a car bomb in front of a restaurant and kill the Saudi ambassador. So, the Iranians are very aggressive. Now, what they what they don't do, is they don't do with groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS do, which is they have this vision of a caliphate, that that controls all the Islamic world. And it is established by a terrorist campaign that topples governments. That is a uniquely al-Qaeda kind of ISIS vision. And I think people sometimes get confused. We have ISIS, ISIS-K, and all these other things. Some and even Iran, because most al-Qaeda are Sunni, or most Iranians are Shia. And this is like, Well, why would she cooperate with Sunni him? Why would you know, one terrorist group cooperate or another? And the answer is, you know, they cooperate with each other, they they're just like governments, they have their self interest. And so sometimes they collaborate. Sometimes they ally, sometimes they they fight with each other. But the one thing that they all have in common whether you're ISIS-K or Haqqani network or the in paramilitary. They all want to see harm come to America. And they will all willingly step aside or collaborate, to make sure in the end, Americans are hurt, killed and humiliated.

REICHARD: Retired Lt. Colonel James Carafano with the Heritage Foundation has been our guest. Colonel, thanks so much!

CARAFANO: Hey, thanks for having me.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: World Tour with our reporter in Africa, Onize Ohikere.

ONIZE OHIKERE, REPORTER: Guinea military leaders pledge return to democracy—We start today here in Africa.

AUDIO: [Sound of cheering, car horns]

Members of Guinea’s military paraded through the streets of Conakry on Monday after toppling the government a day earlier.

AUDIO: [Man speaking French]

The country’s new leaders promised international investors that business in the lucrative mining industry would continue as normal. Guinea has the world’s largest reserves of bauxite, a key component of aluminium. Market prices for aluminium hit a decade high on Monday over fears of possible shortages.

Guinea’s military leaders have promised to install a “government of national union” to oversee a political transition.

AUDIO: [Man speaking French]

Members of the main opposition party announced support for the coup on Monday. They said the junta could count on their support to build a peaceful democracy.

But observers fear the military may try to hold on to power. Similar coups in Mali and Chad in the last year have not ended in a return to elected government. Guinea has struggled through a series of political dictatorships for decades.

Myanmar opposition government calls for uprising—Next we go to Southeast Asia.

Members of Myanmar’s opposition movement are calling for a national uprising against the military junta that took control of the country in February.

Dr. Sasa, who goes by only one name, is a spokesman for the shadow National Unity Government.

SASA: The people of Myanmar have suffered these crimes against humanity for the last 74 years of our history. And the military junta, the military generals in Myanmar, are getting worse and worse and worse. So we are fighting not just the military. We are fighting the war against terror. We are fighting the war against injustice. We are fighting the war against evil.

The shadow government includes many of the elected lawmakers blocked from taking their seats after the military seized control of the government. Although they are popular with the people, it’s not clear whether they have enough influence to lead a widespread uprising.

Duwa Lashi La is the shadow government’s acting president. He called for revolt “in every village, town and city in the entire country at the same time.” Observers saw no immediate increase in resistance activity, although ethnic minority militias continue to clash with government forces in rural areas.

France prepares for high-profile terrorist trial—And finally, we end today in Europe.

AUDIO: [Sound of men speaking French, camera shutters]

France is preparing for what officials say will be the longest trial in the country’s history. Twenty men accused of participating in a 2015 mass terror attack in Paris go on trial today. The simultaneous attack on a soccer stadium, concert hall, and outdoor restaurants left 130 people dead and hundreds of others injured.

The attackers claimed affiliation with the Islamic State militant group.

AUDIO: [Man speaking French]

French justice minister Eric Dupond-Moretti said the entire country would be watching the historic trial. On Monday, Dupond-Moretti toured the special courtroom built for the trial. It includes seating for 550 people and a special box for defendants, enclosed in bulletproof glass. Additional observers can watch live broadcasts of the proceedings in multiple overflow rooms.

That’s this week’s World Tour. Reporting for WORLD, I’m Onize Ohikere in Abuja, Nigeria.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Remember Blockbuster Video? There’s only one of these that’s still going—up in Oregon—but believe or not, you can still get a Blockbuster VHS tape—or DVD—in something like 50 different places around the country.

Because they’re giving them away.

Apparently some folks are nostalgic for that hands- on experience of movies at home, as opposed to mere streaming. So they’ve created a network of “FREE BLOCKBUSTER” boxes.

Jim Toscano put one of those boxes on a sidewalk in Detroit, as he explains to television station WJBK:

TOSCANO: The “take a book, leave a book?” - this is” take a film, leave a film.” It’s been great. It’s been pretty nuts. This past week it’s been filled and emptied probably five times already.

He repurposed another sort of blast from the past—an old newspaper box, cleaned it up, painted it blue and put the Blockbuster logo on it.

REICHARD: Just remember: be kind, rewind!

EICHER: It’s The World and Everything in It.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Wednesday, September 8th. You’re listening to WORLD Radio and we’re so glad you are!

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: National tragedy and personal loss.

What happened to this country on 9/11 represents one of the darkest days in American history.

But it also represents individual stories of loss. Today WORLD Senior Correspondent Kim Henderson brings us the story of one widow.

KIM HENDERSON, SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: On September 9th, 2001, Bruce Van Hine was heading to his shift as a firefighter with the City of New York. His wife Ann remembers he pulled her aside before he walked out the door.

VAN HINE: He said to me, “I'm so blessed” . . .

She didn’t know it then, but that would be the last time Ann ever saw the man she’d been married to for 21 years.

NEWSCAST: [9/11 BROADCAST]

Two days later Ann was listening to her car radio when news broke that hijackers had crashed airplanes into the World Trade Center. Bruce Van Hine was in Special Operations Command—firefighters trained for confined space, biochemical, and high angle rescue. She had no doubt he’d gone into the towers.

So Ann went home to wait. Her two teenage daughters came home from school. The hours passed.

VAN HINE: It was about midnight, and I was sitting on the couch and they came to the door.

It was Bruce’s lieutenant and another firefighter.

VAN HINE: He was kind of hemming and hawing and not really saying anything. And finally I said to him, “Just say it.” And Charlie said, “They're unaccounted for.” And I said to him, “I have no doubt God can get me through this, but I don't want to go through this.”

That was a hard night, but Ann says a verse kept running through her head.

VAN HINE: You know, sorrow lasts for a night, but joy cometh in the morning. And I held on to that. As a matter of fact, that first night, I did not lay down to sleep until the sun rose, because I had to see there was another day.

Soon their church set up a meal schedule. Firefighters covered in dust from Ground Zero showed up with bagels. Kraft sent boxes of mac and cheese.

VAN HINE: We started receiving in the mail cards and letters and notes and drawings from 5 year olds and bracelets beaded by grandmas and bookmarks made by teenagers.

Many of those envelopes had no address. Just “Family of Firefighter Van Hine, Greenwood Lake, New York.”

VAN HINE: The intentional kindness of individuals and businesses and people from around the world just meant so much, when you hear something happen, reach out because it makes a difference. Because you don't feel alone.

A month before 9/11, the Van Hines had gone to a family camp. Bruce’s 2-year-old godson, Justin, was there.

VAN HINE: . . . was really Dennis the Menace incarnate, because he was always in trouble. He got himself in trouble again. And his dad said, “You know, if you do that, again, you're going back to our campsite.”

Whatever it was, the toddler did it again. His dad scooped him up and carried him away. All the while, the little boy was kicking and screaming.

VAN HINE: And right after the day of the attacks, I remembered that. But I also thought Justin could have just rested in his father's arms when he went back to the campsite, because no matter what, he was going back to the campsite. So that's how I kind of thought of the whole what was happening to us, was this is happening. So I have the choice. I can rest in my Heavenly Father's arms or I can go kicking and screaming, but it's not going to change what's happening. Because it was happening.

Still, Ann says it took some time to accept that Bruce was gone, especially without a body. But she had to trust God. Believe that He knows what He’s doing.

VAN HINE: That doesn't mean there haven't been times that I've looked up at the heavens or the ceiling and gone, “Are you kidding me? Especially when I'm standing in water because the hot water heater broke or something like that. And I don't know if I'm really directing that towards God or towards Bruce.

In March 2002, Ann’s phone rang in the middle of the night.

VAN HINE: They were pretty sure they had found his body. His body was carried out by firefighters from Squad 41 covered with an American flag. And I have that flag.

As a widow, Ann watched her daughters graduate from high school and college. Get married. Have children.

Ann retired in 2011 to focus on writing a book. Pieces Falling published last month. It details her faith journey, but the scope is broader.

VAN HINE: We all in our lives have attacks—something happens, maybe not a terrorist attack, but something that shakes your foundation to the core.

And for 15 years, Ann has volunteered at the 9/11 Tribute Center, now Tribute Museum.

AUDIO: [ANN AT MUSEUM]

VAN HINE: . . . teaching about the symbolism and the timeline of that day. But the main part is me sharing my personal story.

A personal story that includes both the sorrows and blessings that came along with 9/11.

One of the biggest blessings has been the opportunity for Ann to share her faith with museum visitors. And with other audiences like this one, where she closed out her 9/11 story with words from Ephesians 3.

VAN HINE: . . . to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. (clapping)

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Kim Henderson.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Wednesday, September 8th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Here’s WORLD commentator Janie B. Cheaney on living life in wait.

JANIE B. CHEANEY, COMMENTATOR: “They who wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up on wings as eagles.” We love this verse from Isaiah 40, probably because we’ve all experienced it.

Think about those in-between times, when the prep is done and the will is supercharged—and you find yourself sitting on the tarmac in a stalled plane. The time that was packed with plans is suddenly limp and futile. You can’t step back, but can’t yet go forward.

Years ago, we found our dream house in a dream location. On Friday we put up earnest money. The next Monday my husband learned that his office was closing in a few months, his job terminated. I had longed for years to be nearer my family, and I loved the house. But that comfortable future was suddenly wiped out, and all I could do was wait for another future to take shape.

Waiting on the Lord is mostly seen as a passive virtue, an opportunity to practice patience. We can’t make vacation come any quicker or speed up the rehab or create wrinkles in time with the tesseract. We can’t close our eyes and wake up at the end of a long recovery and learn that everything fell out like it was supposed to. So we wait. If we have faith, we trust the Lord to work all things together for good. Because there’s nothing else we can do.

But here’s another waiting verse, in Isaiah 30:18: “Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you . . . For the Lord is a God of justice and blessed are all those who wait for him.” The Lord also waits. But not like us, not merely observing from His sovereign throne. When the Lord “waits,” there’s something going on. And a lot of it is going on with us.

As many listeners know, my husband was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease three years ago. Nothing can be done about it. Though healthy in body and generally cheerful, he’s losing words by the bucketful and often can’t string a sentence together. I sometimes imagine his warm flesh shrinking to bone and his heartbeat failing. His brain is slowly shutting down. Not to be morbid, but sometimes it feels like a death watch. The kind that all of us are on, but this one has an expiration date: sometime around 2025.

I have choices, though, and God is waiting to be gracious to me. When work overwhelms me, I can remember that He is working in all things. When the days seem endless, I can meditate on Christ the Omega. Though my hands are tied as to circumstances, I can still open them.

That’s waiting with the Lord, not just upon him, and it’s anything but passive.

I’m Janie B. Cheaney.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Tomorrow: intelligence operations. Now 20 years after 9/11, is America better prepared to detect a mass terror attack?

And, Afghanistan. We’ll find out what changes the Taliban is already making in the country.

That and more tomorrow.

I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard.

The World and Everything in It comes to you from WORLD Radio.

WORLD’s mission is biblically objective journalism that informs, educates, and inspires.

Jesus said: If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it.

Go now in grace and peace.

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