Posted on 09/11/2001 9:03:35 PM PDT by NixNatAVanG InDaBurgh
(September 12) - "Yesterday, December 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy - the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked... No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory... I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese empire." - US president Franklin D. Roosevelt, after the attack on Pearl Harbor
We live today in a different world. As German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has stated, someone has declared war on the United States. The war against terrorism, however, is a world war as surely as the war that was fought half a century ago.
As we look with horror at the devastating attacks on the United States, the hearts of all Israelis are with the American people. Even we Israelis, who have been battling a wave of terrorism for almost a year, have trouble fathoming what has befallen tens of thousands of innocent people in America.
We are sickened, once again, by scenes of Palestinians dancing in the streets, this time celebrating the deaths of Americans. We have trouble fathoming the hatred directed at us, so we can only imagine the bafflement and pain of Americans attempting to contemplate the baseless hatred directed at them.
Some Americans, like some Israelis, may be tempted to think about what they have done wrong, what they might have done to cause people to take so many lives along with their own. The answer is that America has been attacked not for what it has done wrong, but for what it has done right, and for being the hope of the entire world.
Concepts such as good and evil have long gone out of fashion, but we must relearn how to think in these terms. We have become used to rounding the corners off everything, so that what used to be a chasm between good and evil has been whittled down to a matter of opinion. But the fact that there are people in this world who would crash an airplane full of innocent people into a building full of innocent people should revive the concept of evil.
There is a new "evil empire" - the empire of terror.
When confronting evil, the appropriate emotions are anger and determination, not understanding and moderation. The terrorists were evidently thinking as big as they could; the American response should be no less ambitious.
The United States will obviously seek out the organizations that have declared war on it and the states that give them moral and material support. But the world is not a court of law and the United States cannot limit itself to acting based on a level of proof that may never be found.
Rather, the United States should state, as Roosevelt did in 1941, that as of yesterday's attacks a state of war "has existed" between the United States and the "evil empire" of state-sponsored terrorism.
In this war, the diplomatic front is at least as crucial as the military one. The United States, as strange as it may sound, should take this opportunity to restore the United Nations to its original purpose.
The highest purpose of the United Nations Charter was to band the nations of the world together against international aggression. While that purpose was long ago distorted beyond recognition, it is time to finally breathe life into it.
The United States should demand that the Security Council use the strongest measures in its arsenal - mandatory "Chapter 7" sanctions - against any nation that supports international terrorism. Making sure that such sanctions are imposed on known terrorist states may be a long battle, but fighting this battle will put these nations on the defensive and provide the appropriate background for military actions the United States will have to take. Any nation that opposes the American effort should be told that its relations with the United States will be affected accordingly.
Terrorism is a global scourge that must be fought globally. Until now, the democracies have fiddled with and indulged the states where terrorism has been cultivated and grown. America's goal should be, one way or another, to defeat or remove the regimes that have declared war against her. If the democracies do not unite to defend themselves, our world will become as tragically unrecognizable as the New York skyline.
1. They did it for Allah.
2. They did it for oil-rich Arab shieks.
3. They did it because the Israeli government killed their loved ones, and the US government supports the Israeli government.
Which potential motive do you think The Jerusalem Post will never discuss?
Once we recognize we are dead, a great weight is lifted off of our shoulders, because then, and only then, salvation and acting the intent of G_d becomes the only task left. That means separating the facts and the mechanics of enemity from the politics and the assumptions, i.e. separating what needs to be done against real enemies from junk enemity.
Remember to love your enemy indeed, because your enemy might be your diseased loved one who, struck by bacteriological weapons, pleads for your help. Yet this person you love has become your unwitting enemy because that person can infect you if you help him or her.
We ain't seen nothing yet.
As a matter of fact, my IQ does rate above genius level. Maybe that's why I understand that it's important to comprehend the motives behind those who choose to be my enemy. It has something to do with the solution of stopping them from killing me.
In 1999, a terrorist tried to smuggle explosives into the US and blow up the Seattle Y2K celebration. I could have been there. My little six year old nephew could have been there.
At that time, I realized the only reason that Arab terrorists want to kill me is because my government supports the nation of Israel, which is killing their people. And that made me realize that if my government wasn't supporting the nation of Israel, then maybe Arab terrorists wouldn't be trying to kill me -- and my little six-year-old nephew.
Today, far more Americans have died for Israel than Israelis have died for Israel. And then The Jerusalem Post says, "Now you know how it feels." I presume that counts as an expression of sympathy. And then the subtext is, "Now go fight our enemies on our behalf!"
Is it really cowardice to bow out of that offer? Then maybe you could come over and explain to my nephew why he must risk his life so that people on the other side of the world can act out a religious power fantasy that is two thousand years out of date. I suppose when he's old enough, you'll want to draft him into a war.
I'm not damning the Jews here in particular. I think both sides are overreacting. I also think, "This is not my fight." I hear Michael Medved on the radio justify our involvement with Israel on the basis of oil, and I think, "The Arabs would probably give us a discount on their oil if we weren't associated with the Israelis." Now that the Soviet Union is gone, there's no reason based on rational self-interest for us to be over there.
That day in 1999, I realized that they'd try again, and again, and again. And they would kill thousands and thousands and thousands, and maybe they would get their hands on some chemical weapons or biological weapons or leftover tactical nukes from the Soviet arsenal, and they would kill millions.
So nice that you don't care, all you want is revenge -- the more sweeping and brutal, the better. It's pretty transparent, though, that the real reason you don't want to discuss their motives for killing us is because that would lead to the realization that we could stop the killing if we just got out of the Middle East.
And then where would Israel be? Well, in Florida, probably! Which probably wouldn't be bad for the Jews -- but Ariel Sharon would probably be upset, because it would end his power trip and then he wouldn't be able to fight Middle East terrorism to the last American.
I hope we bring these terrorists who did this act today to justice. But I have no thirst for revenge that ends up making me the taxpaying -- and perhaps life-sacrificing -- patsy for someone else's power trip.
Why don't you, the Arabs, and the Israelis go someplace and have a fight among yourselves -- and leave me and my family out of it!
You don't understand that this isn't about Israel, its about WESTERN IDEALS vs. FUNDEMENTAL ISLAM.
They attack us Israelis and you Americans for the same reasons, because we have FREE DEMOCRATIC states and not crazy Muslim Feudalistic states like Afghanistan or Saudi Arabia, or Iran.
You remind me of one of those people that will let a HOLOCUST OF JEWS occure without doing anything because you are not Jewish. And then when it happens to Protestants, let it happen because you are not protestant, and so on and so on. ISRAEL IS YOUR ONLY REAL ALLY IN THE FIGHT AGAINST TERROR BECAUSE WE UNDERSTAND IT BETTER THEN YOU.
Additionally, if we are destroyed, then there will always be a new exuse for attacking America the 'Great Satan'. Also, who cares if the Soviet Union is gone or oil, you support us because we are the only FREE DEMOCRACY with free speech, social mobility, etc... in the ENTIRE MIDDLE EAST, and as far as i remember, America was founded on IDEOLOGY.
ISRAEL DOESNT WANT AMERICA TO FIGHT ITS WARS FOR IT YOU IDIOT! Israel wants STUPID AMERICANS like yourself to take the handcuffs off of us and let us defend ourselves by ourselves, instead of telling us to USE RESTRAINT against murderers.
How would you like it if we told you to use restraint now in order to stop the escalation of the cycle of violence?
Additionally, ISRAEL DECLARED A NATIONAL DAY OF MOURNING for America, send blood to america, and a special forces unit to help get people out of the wreckage.
You know what the ARAB WORLD (especially the egyptians and palestinians) did? They celebrated in the streets, like they do after they kill our civilians.
ALSO AND FINALLY: you mentioned sometihng about the fact that they did this because we killed their family or friends or whatever... if we did kill someone they identified with, IT WAS BECAUSE THAT PERSON BLEW UP OUR BABIES IN THEIR KINDERGARDENS, OR DISCOS, OR PIZZA PLACES!
SO OF COURSE WE'D KILL THEM, because when ARAB ISLAMIC TERRORIST LIKE THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY, blow up Israeli kids, ISRAEL KILLS THE TERRORISTS. Or perhaps you think we dont have a right to defend ourselves.
I MORON FOR AMERICA, because I AM ALSO AN AMERICAN!
However, maybe now that you've gotten a taste of how horrible islamic terror can be, you will FINALLY JOIN US, not fight FOR US, JOIN US, in the battle against the real enemy, instead of pretending that if you didn't support freedom and justice maybe this will all go away.
HEY 537 VOTES, you know what the real way is for you to defend your 6 year old against this terror? Turn America into a prehistoric ISLAMIC FUNDEMENTALIST STATE. If you don't do that, they will come and get you eventually, so if your so smart, WISE UP!
I MORON for AMERICA, because I AM AN AMERICAN
should be:
I MOURN for America, because I AM AN AMERICAN TOO!
typing to fast...
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