Posted on 05/22/2004 2:58:12 PM PDT by MrBallroom
PICKING YOUR BATTLES
by Timothy Rollins, Editor and Publisher
If there has ever been a time to pick sides, that time is now – and that applies to every aspect of your life imaginable. Six months ago, I may not have said that publicly (though I have privately practiced that philosophy my entire adult life), but since the events of 9-11, all bets are off. In every area of our lives, we are called upon to make choices, and those choices we make will affect other areas of our lives – as such, we need to choose carefully and wisely.
We begin with perhaps the most important area of our lives in which we make our choices, and that area would have to be as it pertains to the protection of our families and ourselves. The Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States clearly allows for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. As a young man, my father had weapons in the family home; as boys, he taught us the proper use, care and maintenance of those weapons and especially the paramount importance of proper safety procedures to be used while handling, storing and transporting said weapons.
Other ways to protect one’s safety and well being include the taking of self-defense classes, and I do not mean for the sake of being able to say "I can kick so-and-so’s butt." That is missing the point. Ask any martial arts instructor, and he will tell you that part of your integrity is maintaining your self-discipline in such a manner so that you never have to use what you learn unless you are left with absolutely no alternative and either your safety or that of others is in imminent peril.
One of the things I (and most others) have learned over the years is to pick one's battles carefully. When I have done so, it has benefited myself, and more importantly, others a great deal. When I haven’t, I have been the one who has come up on the short end of the stick and I have had only myself to blame.
As I said earlier – in a post 9-11 world, all bets are off, for we have had brought forcefully home that there are those – often within our midst – whose sole purpose and mission in life is to kill and destroy as many Americans as possible. These people are not afraid of dying; they see death as a passport to Paradise – a ticket to Allah, if you will. These ideas and ideals have been implanted in their minds by those who have so twisted the Quran so as to make it unrecognizable by its original author, or by the true modern-day adherents of Islam.
What makes this all the more tragic is that the peaceable followers of Islam – those who seek to just go about their business, worship freely, pay their bills and be ordinary Americans, Canadians, Britons or whatever like the rest of us, is that one cannot help but think that they might be forcibly silenced by militant elements within the Islamic community – not unlike the Spanish Inquisition of some centuries back.
As I see the events of the world since 9-11, I think of a quote that I read shortly after the attack. It was in the form of a letter sent in to Maclean’s Magazine in Canada from Christopher T. Cairney of Istanbul Turkey, who said of Usama bin Laden:
"He is not the first ruthless man to wish to be a king. For the radical clerics of the Taliban, however, there is something personally dangerous about globalization: these clerics sense that their medievalism cannot long survive the onslaught of globalization, just as the grim Puritan clerics of the Salem witch trials in 17th-Century America feared change. Make no mistake, there is a clash of cultures here, but it is not Christians against Muslims, it is the modern versus the Medieval."
In a post-9-11 world, we as a people will be called on to not only make more and more choices; we will be called upon to defend those choices, sometimes with our own lives, if necessary. We will be called to stand up for what we believe in and for who and what we really are. These are the traits that we call character, and it is these traits that we pass on to our children and their children. Cars, palatial homes, financial wealth and all the mortal trappings become insignificant very quickly when one realizes that the only thing one passes as their legacy is their good names, their integrity and their character.
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In the founding days of our great nation, the signers of the Declaration of Independence pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor. The day will well come when we may have to do the same thing in our own lives. Don’t believe me? Just before his brutal decapitation by his Islamic militant captors, Wall Street Journal Reporter Daniel Pearl (right) stated, "I Am A Jew, My Mother Is A Jew." True and faithful to the end, Danny died a martyr to his cause – to his profession, to his religion and to his heritage, in the process leaving a priceless legacy to his unborn son, who will undoubtedly grow to revere the memory of a father he will never meet in mortality.
The line needs to be drawn by all of us in deciding what is right for our families and for each of us, and that line needs to be drawn now. If we do not draw it ourselves, someone else will draw it for us, and we may not like the way that line is drawn. Only we should have control of our destinies, and that decision should be left in our hands, not in the hands of some faceless, unelected, unaccountable government bureaucrat.
The war on terrorism has finally struck home. It came calling on us and it is now time for us to answer that call – to take up arms and defend our families, homes, beliefs and all we hold dear by whatever means possible. We need to strike back with as much brute force possible and with absolute and complete totality. It is not enough to send a message; we need to ensure that they get the message whether the phone rings or not. These people have declared war against the United States of America and her people; as such, we need to hunt them down to every corner of the earth and completely and utterly destroy them. We need to make examples out of them if for no other reason but to ensure the value of its potential deterrent effect.
For those who saw the movie "Swordfish", you will know what I mean when I refer to John Travolta’s character "Gabe" going into detail about making the thought of anyone attacking an American so terrifying, so prohibitive, that nobody will even give any serious thought to doing so. For example: If they hijack a U.S. plane, then we blow up an airport. In other words, we retaliate on such a massive scale, that nobody even thinks of hurting our people – period – end of discussion.
I remember back in the 1980’s when Americans getting kidnapped in Beirut was a regular occurrence. Some poor Soviet got himself scooped up during that time as well. Say what you want about the old Soviets being ruthless and all, but they got results. They scooped a couple of those terrorists, held them a couple of days, released their dead bodies minus a few "key parts", and the next thing you know, the kidnapped Soviet was released with an apology no less. If America has to go it alone without the UN in this op, all the better – in fact, most Americans would in all likelihood prefer it that way. That would just eliminate one more source for a potential security leak anyway, especially given the Communist tilt of the UN military staff. Besides, who needs them anyway?
We are now at the point of either kill or be killed. It was put best by my friend and colleague Jennifer King (left) who had this to say on the matter last week:
"The brutal murder of Danny Pearl, captured on videotape by his merciless captors, should cause all Americans to realize that we are dealing with a foe every bit as barbaric, fanatical and bent on world domination as the Nazis and the Japanese. They will unhesitatingly kill every single American they can find, unless we kill them first. That is the stark reality. Those on the Left will finally have to pick - on which side they will choose to fight."
So answer me this folks: Which side are you on? ***
© 2002 Timothy Rollins
COPYRIGHT © 2002 BY THE AMERICAN PARTISAN. All writers retain rights to their work.
The islam has been "hijacked" is a con game for suckers. just open up the Quran.
That column was written over two years ago. Since the beheading of Nick Berg, may I suggest you read the column "THE BEHEADING OF NICK BERG (REPOST)" for a more realistic reassessment of my opinion on what I have come to think of a 'gutter religion'.
I had read and bookmarked your original piece. It was excellent! I'm trying to find a more appropriate term other than religion..Murder cult is the closest I've gotten.
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