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Knowing your enemy
Washington Times ^ | October 16, 2005 | By Clifford D. May

Posted on 10/16/2005 12:40:32 AM MDT by Jim Robinson

For more than a generation, a war was fought against the United States. Most Americans, however, didn't know it. And even those who did may have been puzzled about whom we were fighting.

The war began in 1979, after Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini came to power in Iran and his followers, chanting "Death to America," seized our embassy in Tehran and took our diplomats prisoner. But we did not interpret that to mean we were at war with Iran.

In 1983, members of the same movement bombed our embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut, killing hundreds. But we did not see ourselves at war with Hezbollah or its sponsors.

In the 1990s, adherents of the same ideology -- totalitarian, supremacist, antidemocratic -- attacked Americans repeatedly: office workers in New York City, diplomats at embassies in Africa, military personnel in the Middle East. And in 1996, a wealthy Saudi exile published what he called a "Declaration of War Against the Americans."

But even as we suffered these attacks, we did not acknowledge a war was being waged. In fact, most Americans believed they lived in a time of unprecedented peace and prosperity. There was even a "peace dividend" to be spent.

The horrific attacks of September 11, 2001, were a wake-up call -- but the nation remained groggy. Since hijacking planes and crashing them into in the World Trade Center was an act of terrorism, we set about to fight a "war on terrorism" -- as though there were no movement driving terrorism and no ideology justifying violation of the age-old taboo against intentionally murdering women and children.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1503325/posts