Excerpt

Ten years ago today, al-Qaida became a permanent and unwanted fixture in our lives.

On Sept. 11, 2001, its network orchestrated the greatest act of terrorism ever executed against the United States. A decade later, many of us have been negatively impacted by the presence of Islamic extremism and we are reminded of it on a daily basis.

Specifically, we are still engaged in three global conflicts: the wars on terrorism, Afghanistan, and the Iraqi civil war — U.S. servicemen and women continue fighting and dying in order to stop the spread of extremism and hatred with which al-Qaida is synonymous. We are still financially burdened with the cost of these three global conflicts and they are costing American taxpayers billions of dollars a year. That is money that could be spent on our own educational, infrastructural, and technological needs, not to mention paying off the national debt.