Posted on 09/12/2001 8:21:33 AM PDT by GotDangGenius
It’s rather useless to state the obvious this morning- that if Al Gore would have won the election, he would no doubt have assembled a National Security team that claim to “understand” people like Bin Laden who chose to carry out horrific terror because they might be misunderstood and need to be tolerated because they might have a slightly different physical appearance.
It’s rather useless this morning to re-hash, saying “I told you so,” concerning the committee on terrorism solutions report that was finalized two years ago by terrorism experts, but which the Clinton/Gore Administration shelved as a policy because pie-in-the-sky liberals incorrectly thought that the findings of fact in that report, pointing out correctly that suicide bombers are indeed solely Islamic, Arab decent people, it would be politically incorrect for the United States to take responsible measures to counter terrorism, and the Clinton/Gore Administration took the ridiculous position, while not stating it outright, that the people of the United States should sacrifice themselves as terror victims instead of risking any hint of acknowledging the fact that indeed suicide bombers are indeed fundamentalist fanatics of Arab decent- that, according to the Clinton/Gore Administration beliefs, would be politically incorrect, despite the reality of the facts.
It’s rather useless this morning to also re-has that when the Reagan and Bush Administration stood the course to win the cold war, and indeed the “Evil empire” came tumbling down in the last years of the Bush I Administration, that the Clinton Administration and the Democratically controlled Congress immediately made the premature assessment that our nation’s national security and defense concerns could be virtually ignored as legitimate- after all, Reagan/Bush had won the cold war and it was now time to spend defense funds on things like midnight basketball and pile on the pork spending into our national budget, and in making that policy change, the Clinton/Gore group and the Democratically controlled congress made sweeping changes that also eliminated crucial funding and restricted further our nations’ human foreign intelligence gathering services- the ability of our nation to infiltrate terrorist organizations that may harm the citizens of our nation.
It’s certainly useless this morning to indeed re-hash all the above, but as certain as the World Trade Center lays in a heap with thousands dead underneath it’s steel and concrete, the reality sets in that both the former President Clinton and the Congress made some horrific mistakes about national security, and in the end, we actually elected a President who appeared to place more importance on his personal belief, and the liberal elitist’s incomprehensibly unrealistic belief that it fighting terrorism- or at least taking responsible measures to counter it based on the facts, might require the nation to strike a legal and Constitutional balance between the reality that although it was known clearly that from an generally identifiable race of people, came some horrific radicals that were intent on killing Americans in as many numbers as they could accomplish, but that because that was the case, it was better for America to not even attempt to strike the balance between race and terrorism at all, and simply bury our head in the sand as though none of these facts were actually the case.
In short, it is useless this morning to re-hash the realization today that those actions to ignore the real terror threat for some “greater principle of political correctness” has clearly been the gravest mistake our government, our own shortsighted domestic political machinations and the decisions of the President- all coming together at the wrong place at the wrong time- have ever caused to occur in our nation’s history.
Yesterday, the United States was subjected to the greatest loss of life in a single day from an attack upon our own soil. It was only at the battle of Antetum, in our Civil War that more Americans died in any single day in our history.
Let’s be very clear about our situation- we have been a very blessed nation. Our Constitution has provided us with a form of government that has stood the test of time, given us more wealth and prosperity than any other nation in history and also forced us as a people, either intentionally or unintentionally as the founders fathers constructed our Constitution, to strike a balance between rights and security, between one political philosophy and another, and it has always allowed us, even at grave or unwise risk to ourselves, to move too far in one political direction or another and face the consequences of our decisions- in this case, we are a prosperous nation with the luxury of manufacturing “political correctness” and deciding to place that above our own security interests. Today, we must come to the realization that this, while being a “good intention”, has been a move in one political direction too far, and we have suffered the consequences in a gravely self-inflicted fashion to some extent.
For certain, we did not purposely cause this terror to be exacted upon us, but our complacency, fostering unrealistic assumptions that the rest of the world would somehow abide by our own luxuries of political correctness when it comes to national security, was so far off the mark as to be thought of as ludicrous in hindsight. But enough of that. This is yet another instance in our Nation’s history, among the many many other instances where we have, because of our blessed circumstances as a Nation, become the victims of the luxury to which we are able to err to such extremes.
Today, we come to the realization that although the earnest good intentions of some in our nation who led us down this path of complacency now cause us to move in the direction of bringing us back to the center of realistic behavior and assumptions and policies.
President Lincoln, in the midst of the worse days of the Civil War and with a heavy burden upon his own shoulders said, “This too shall pass,” and no doubt this horrific terror today will also pass as the event it is.
In knowing that, in understanding this event, in dealing with it, it is worth recognizing that while even some in our nation attempt to wipe out the intent of those who framed our government, who spent years formulating our Constitution and purpose of our government are maligned as “a few white men,” their final document, the final terms of rights and obligations and duties of a government that was recognized by a later President as “a government of the people, by the people, and for the people,” means the people are enabled, authorized, allowed, and may and have, made the gravest mistakes of life and death even if it is founded on our own complacency and shortsightedness, and we are responsible for the consequences of our actions.
Today is such a day of realization of our responsibilities as a government of the people and by the people, and it is also a realization that whatever we do to respond to this historic event, will also come back to either haunt us or protect us.
No American can argue that we will magically not face the consequences of our decisions hereafter, and in the life of this nation, as we are forced to come to this reality check, the Constitution the framers set for us to adhere to, has once again produced an excess in one direction, and now the consequences of that excess.
If there is a good thing to come of all this, it is that the nation has periodically been forced to come back to reality because of it’s decisions, and this time is such a time.
It is a foregone conclusion that the President’s declaration this morning that this is not simply an act of terror, but an act of war, and the Congressional debate this morning also reflects this realistic assessment, and is void of the political backpedaling and political divisiveness that our form of government indeed has room for, but has been recognized by our leaders today as a luxury for another time and another place when these real threats are minimized.
This is a good nation. We are a well intentioned people, and when the chips are down, our history of making the right decisions, because we can also make bad decisions, is likely the most important lesson we can take away from this set of circumstances.
Not each generation of Americans has the misfortune to experience this, and not each generation has the opportunity to experience the renewal of faith in our system and form of government. For better or worse, we are now such a generation. Pay close attention- this is how the people of this incredible experiment in historical Democracy meet the threat of their day, and when it is over, remember to pass the lessons learned today upon to the next generation- luxury and complacency may also befall them and another extreme in their future political direction may arise for them- it is wise to be guided by history, if for nothing more than advice on how they might proceed down their course.
At the moment, we have ours, may we make the best decisions to protect ourselves, our form of government, even with all it’s flaws, and may we then pass that on to those in the future who may need our guidance. This is only right.
First of all, the word is spelled "descent."
Second, it is NOT clear that they are "Arab-de(s)cent" people (it would be more correct to say "people of Arab descent.") For example many in this band are Afghans and Iranians, who are NOT of Arab descent. How droll of you to try to "simplify" for those of us who have no higher an IQ than you do.
Lastly, what is your point? That we need to vilify people of a certain race, color or creed, just as we did "all Japanese" just after Pearl Harbor?
To refresh your memory, the way Americans of Japanese deScent were treated in that period has come back to haunt us as a shameful event in our history. Why don't you take a valium and try to relax?
"Sorry for the grammatical and spelling errors..."
Because of the heavy traffic on the site, it never made it to the thread.
As to your question of suggesting that we should round up all people of arab looking desent- you obviously aren't using common sense- that is neither a responsible option today, nor would it likely ever happen. Further, it would likely not be useful anyway.
Point is, and it is clear you don't want to face the reality of it, we as a nation have allowed ourselves to fail to take rational steps not to profile or round up people, but to take responsible steps to indeed "profile" those people who have time and time again been suicide bombers, and we have failed to take common sense and fair means to do so, solely because liberal elitists with their heads in the sand were not intelligent enough to think through their pie-in-the-sky silliniess of political corectness.
Again, this nation is allowed to go to such a silly extreme because of our liberties of politics, and when that occurs, as it has now, and those who led us there cause us to run into the brick wall of reality, it is worth noting that in our history, this has happened before, and the nation comes back to to reality.
If you also fail to understand history in this regard, you really do have less an IQ than you are suggesting you may have.
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