Posted on 11/09/2001 5:55:39 AM PST by Stand Watch Listen
Yesterday First Lady Laura Bush gave a speech to the Press Club and President George W. Bush gave a speech to the American people on homeland defense.
Laura Bush said:
"We are a kinder nation today. People seem to take more time to ask about each other. I notice more people hugging their friends and even reaching out to touch people they barely know. We are opening our doors to our neighbors and our hearts to strangers."
George W. Bush said:
"We are a nation awakened to danger. We're also a nation awakened to service, and citizenship, and compassion. None of us would ever wish the evil that has been done to our country, yet we have learned that out of evil can come great good.During the last two months, we have shown the world America is a great nation. Americans have responded magnificently, with courage and caring. We've seen it in our children, who have sent in more than $1 million for the children of Afghanistan. We have seen it in the compassion of Jewish and Christian Americans who have reached out to their Muslim neighbors. We have seen it as Americans have reassessed priorities -- parents spending more time with their children, and many people spending more time in prayer and in houses of worship.
We have gained new heroes: Those who ran into burning buildings to save others, our police and our firefighters. Those who battled their own fears to keep children calm and safe -- America's teachers. Those who voluntarily placed themselves in harm's way to defend our freedom -- the men and women of the Armed Forces.
And tonight, we join in thanking a whole new group of public servants who never enlisted to fight a war, but find themselves on the front lines of a battle nonetheless: Those who deliver the mail -- America's postal workers. We also thank those whose quick response provided preventive treatment that has no doubt saved thousands of lives -- our health care workers.
We are a different country than we were on September the 10th -- sadder and less innocent; stronger and more united; and in the face of ongoing threats, determined and courageous.
Our nation faces a threat to our freedoms, and the stakes could not be higher. We are the target of enemies who boast they want to kill -- kill all Americans, kill all Jews, and kill all Christians. We've seen that type of hate before -- and the only possible response is to confront it, and to defeat it.
This new enemy seeks to destroy our freedom and impose its views. We value life; the terrorists ruthlessly destroy it. We value education; the terrorists do not believe women should be educated or should have health care, or should leave their homes. We value the right to speak our minds; for the terrorists, free expression can be grounds for execution. We respect people of all faiths and welcome the free practice of religion; our enemy wants to dictate how to think and how to worship even to their fellow Muslims.
This enemy tries to hide behind a peaceful faith. But those who celebrate the murder of innocent men, women, and children have no religion, have no conscience, and have no mercy.
We wage a war to save civilization, itself. We did not seek it, but we must fight it -- and we will prevail.
In those few words, the President was interrupted with applause nine times. Most Americans, and a growing number of people in other nations, are beginning to realize that this really is a war to save civilization. There is no compromise between destroying civilization and saving civilization, yet we still hear the calls of disunity and appeasement.
One of the dubious advantages of writing for a world wide audience is getting e-mail from people who have an agenda that, frankly, is to destroy civilization, not just America. I've been corresponding recently with several people in that category in Britan, because of a news analysis I wrote about a story in the London Mirror, written by John Pilger, who called America's War on Terrorism a "Fraud."
He wrote:
"After three weeks' bombing, not a single terrorist implicated in the attacks on America has been caught or killed in Afghanistan."Instead, one of the poorest, most stricken nations has been terrorised by the most powerful - to the point where American pilots have run out of dubious "military" targets and are now destroying mud houses, a hospital, Red Cross warehouses, lorries carrying refugees.
If you listen carefully, you will hear that message being broadcast from all over the world. One correspondent on a cable network held up that issue of the London Mirror to "prove" how "most of the world" was viewing America's war on terrorism.
Pilger also said in that article that
"When the Taliban took Kabul in 1996, Washington said nothing. Why? Because Taliban leaders were soon on their way to Houston, Texas, to be entertained by executives of the oil company, Unocal. With secret US government approval, the company offered them a generous cut of the profits of the oil and gas pumped through a pipeline that the Americans wanted to build from Soviet central Asia through Afghanistan."Actually, of course, the facts are that Unocal was a minority stock holder in an international group who had a plan to pump NATURAL GAS to India for its industries. It was not for America. I can find no record of any offer to the Taliban of "generous profits" from Texas interests, but I would point out that if there WAS any "secret U.S. Government approval, it would have had to been coming from the Clinton White House, not the current President and Vice-President. And, certainly if there WAS a deal between Unocal and the Taliban for "generous profits" to the Taliban government, that certainly would be an improvement over their heroin sale profits, I would think.
In the correspondence I've had with people who support Pilger, it is clear that their arguments are all anti-oil environmentalist arguments. Somehow, as Zoe, one of the writers put it, this apparently failed attempt to bring a pipeline across anarchic Afghanistan was:
"the ill-thought out strategic adventures of the unelected oily gangsters unfortunately currently occupying your white house, who by their ignorant arrogance will bring many more tragedies like September 11th on America, as well as the usual nightmare for poorer (usually browner-skinned) communities who stand in the way of their moneymaking and strategic interests."I wrote back to inquire why she thought it was inherently evil for the Russians to sell natural gas to the Indians to create electric power to improve their standard of living? I received no reply to that question, merely other inane statements, which she somehow thinks are valid arguments for her anti-civilization notions.
As I monitor news and views from around the world on the War on Terrorism I am increasingly convinced that the President is totally right on the issue. This really is, as he said this week to the Warsaw Conference on Combatting Terrorism, "a threat to every nation and, eventually, to civilization itself. "
And, folks, not all of the Al Qaeda sympathizers are Middle Eastern radical Muslims. They appear to have supporters in surprising places, not only in Europe, but among radical environmentalists in the United States. In fact, if my e-mail is any indication, the two groups have merged.
To comment: mmostert@bannerofliberty.com
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