Today we reference yesterday’s expected remembrance services which took place in the United States to mark the eleventh anniversary of that day in September 11, 2001 when enemies of the Union killed 3000 innocent men and women in New York.

Not only do we take note of that event; but also of events that were perfectly unexpected – with these involving attacks against United States interests and personnel in not only Egypt and Libya, but throughout the rest of the Middle East.

As we now recall, “…Officials in Washington studying the events of the past 24 hours have focused on the differences between the protests on the American embassy in Cairo and the attack on the consulate in Benghazi, the Libyan city where Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and the other Americans were killed…”

President Obama strongly condemned the killings and ordered increased security at American diplomatic posts around the world. American defense officials said 50 Marines were en route to Libya to strengthen security at United States diplomatic facilities and the State Department ordered all “nonemergency” personnel out of the country and warned Americans not to go there, suggesting that further attacks were possible.

As the American people mourn their most recent dead-in-war victims; and even as they also try to find out what forces – as they came together in Libya and Egypt – conspired to leave one of their ambassadors dead – we tarry a while to let them know, we mourn with them.

We do so not only because of the enduring ties we have with them, but also to let the world know that these are dread times; that we do live not only in fear, but that, like them, we shall never yield to this debilitating emotion.

Barack Obama was clear; and emphatic. This President of The United States was clearly quite assured when he promised, “…no matter how many years pass…”Americans and billions of people around the world will be reminded of that time when nearly 3,000 people were killed by airliners hijacked by Islamist militants.

As we recall, “…Two of the passenger jets brought down the Twin Towers of New York City’s World Trade Center, another hit the Pentagon outside Washington and a fourth crashed in a field in Pennsylvania when passengers aboard that flight fought back against the hijackers…”

Like others who make it their business to look in on what is happening in the metropolis to the north, we were impressed with not only how this exercise in memories-recovered were going down throughout the United States.

We also recall Obama saying that, “…Eleven times we have paused in remembrance and reflection, in unity and in purpose. This is never an easy day…But no matter how many years pass, you will never be alone, your loved ones will never be forgotten. ..” As we note Obama’s resolve and that of the American people, there is no doubting the fact that American officials around the world would be well-advised to hunker down for a long fight.

Rage against the United States is real, is raw and will continue.

This is the reality in a world where war by other means seems to be a brutal part of man’s fate.

Today the United States of America continues yet again faces facts that are unavoidable; with fact number one being concerned with the extent to which any number of people hate it and all it stands for.

One example of this is neatly encapsulated in news coming in from the Middle East.

A mob enraged by a film ridiculing Islam’s prophet killed the U.S. ambassador to Libya and three other Americans in a fiery attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi. President Barack Obama strongly condemned the violence, vowed Wednesday to bring the killers to justice and tightened security at diplomatic posts around the world.

The attack that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens – the first U.S. diplomat to die in the line of duty since 1979 – came on Tuesday’s 11th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist strike.

The death of Mr. Stevens on Tuesday, the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, was the first of an American envoy abroad in more than two decades.

“These four Americans stood up for freedom and human dignity,” Mr. Obama said in a televised statement from the White House Rose Garden, where he stood with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. “Make no mistake: we will work with the Libyan government to bring to justice the killers who attacked our people.”

As things go in this life, the only thing that can be expected is the perfectly unexpected.

The unexpected happened yesterday.