Posted on 09/14/2003 2:55:14 PM PDT by yonif
Two years ago, in the days before Sept. 11 2001, we were living in a different state of mind. A state of mind which placed us in a false sense of security.
This state of false security was amplified by, among other things, our great oceans, military strength, and sheer size. It was also due to the inaction by the US government, specifically in the years of the Clinton Administration, who, even though saw the increase in Islamic terrorism, chose to sit tight and hope for the best, while continuing its trend of appeasement and inaction when faced by terrorist threats.
On Sept. 11, 2001, this all changed. We had over 3000 reasons why it changed. We now felt the same way Israelis have been feeling for over 50 years.
Sept. 11, 2001 was not the first terrorist attack directed against our country. Neither were the 2000 USS Cole bombing, the 1998 bombings of our US embassies in Africa, or the 1993 bombing that left the World Trade Center still standing.
The first terrorist attack we experienced was in 1979, when a group of Islamic “revolutionaries,” with the backing of the Iranian terror regime headed by Ayatollah Khomeni, overran our US Embassy in Teheran and held our citizens hostage from November 1979 to January 1981. Jimmy Carter, who was president, chose to negotiate, which resulted in terrorists receiving money from those Iranian bank accounts which were frozen in the US, and a promise from the President that the US would not interfere in Iranian affairs, in exchange for the release of the hostages. Some saw this set a precedent - a state which actively preached and funded terror against Americans and our allies (such as Israel), was now considered none of our business, even though it should have been our business.
After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, President Bush went ahead and justly announced a war on terrorism. President Bush said that we would not tolerate regimes which sent terrorists abroad and terrorized their people. The battle took the US to Afghanistan and Iraq, two terror states. Some people say that Iraq was not a threat. Some say we should have never toppled the Iraqi terrorist regime. Well, let me ask you something – Would you have said Afghanistan posed a threat on Sept. 10, 2001? Of course not. But look at what 19 of those hijackers who received Al Queda terror aid from within Afghanistan, under the guise of the Taliban terror regime, did with box cutters. They murdered 3000 innocent people!
9/11/01 taught us that as long as terror regimes were allowed to rule anywhere in the world, the free world’s peace, life, and the pursuit of happiness would continue to be in jeopardy.
In light of our progress in the war on terrorism, we still, in practice, have not corrected our mistakes, even though we have “corrected” them in theory. We continue to cuddle terrorist enemies which want to destroy us and our friends. One of these terrorist enemies is Saudi Arabia, a major terror regime which because it has the oil resources, is able to fund many terror activities around the world. It is the major financier of Hamas and other terrorist organizations who continue to murder Americans and Israelis.
We also continue to employ a double standard when it comes to the way one should treat and deal with these terrorist regimes. On the one hand we preach that we must engage the terrorist on his “home” turf, to spare the scum from fighting us on our own streets (as President Bush has stated in his latest speech) and that terror regimes are no different then the terror organizations they shelter.
On the other hand, we preach to countries such as Israel that it must negotiate a false, temporary sense of “peace” and succumb to such an enemy, in this case the Palestinian Authority. This is an extreme deviation from our war on terrorism, and the Bush doctrine which states that only victory against these terrorists will bring peace. The state of temporary security is no security at all.
Why is the US allowed to fight for victory, while Israel must sit down and negotiate false security with a terror regime which has been responsible, since 1993, for over 1300 deaths and a regime which continues to murder endlessly with the constantly announced goal of destroying Israel? Would the US talk of “peace” if terrorists struck a caf? downtown and a bus stop hours apart, like the Palestinian Arab terrorists who murdered 15 the other day (Tuesday, 9/9/03) in Israel?
It took only one day for the US to finally realize that peace cannot be achieved or negotiated when the other party is a terrorist entity. Why then does Israel have to continue to experience the same common enemy targeting its children? Why can’t Israel take its war to the homes of the terrorists without being criticized by the US, a country which took the rightful fight to the Taliban and Saddam Hussein terror regimes?
What we need is a government which will stick to its promises and clear doctrine, to its virtue of “either you are with us or you are with the terrorists.” We need a new tone at the White House; one that is in line with the words put forward by Congressman DeLay in a speech he gave in front of members of Israel’s Knesset (parliament) which said that “Israel is not the problem. Israel is the solution.”
Clearly, as with the cases of Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian Authority terrorist regimes, there are other factors working to shift the principles set forward by President Bush.
But if the US administration intends on winning this war on terrorism, it must stick to its principles and virtues and remove these other “factors” which inhibit this from happening. Terrorists have eyes and ears too. They watch what we do. They have seen that decades of terrorism against Israel have INCREASED, not DECREASED, their standing in the international community as “freedom fighters” fighting for some “homeland” they already really have (Jordan). The have fooled the international community using the English language, including the United States, into thinking they are simply fighting for a state in the West Bank and Gaza, while preaching, using the Arabic language, the need to DESTROY Israel. They have seen that instead of the wrath of the sword they have been rewarded with continued promises of statehood by President Bush and his “roadmap,” even as Israelis are murdered in the streets. They have seen that a clear and persistent Israeli war against Arab terror in the territories has not happened. They have seen that the US is of the opinion that Israel should not do so and that a US safety net around Yasser Arafat prevents Israel from doing anything to stop his personal terror activities.
Israel has been fighting terrorism since 1948, and yet Israel has been criticized and rebuked at every attempt to defend itself. After every war, and every attack, they have been pressured to pull back – by the US echoing the international community.
It is because of this, that our vision is currently blurred in the war on terrorism. It is because of this weakness, more terrorism is inevitable against us and undoubtedly Israel, and against all who would like to uphold the principles of living in a world free of conflict.
May God continue to bless America, Israel and their respective armed forces who are currently fighting all common Islamic terrorist extremists, whether it is in Baghdad, Kabul, or Ramallah.
Until next time,
YF
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