Posted on 11/16/2001 1:05:03 PM PST by Stand Watch Listen
Last week in a column - Have the Muslim Terrorists Merged with the Environmental Terrorists/I observed that it appeared, from the news and my e-mail, that the Muslim terrorists are enjoying quite a bit of support from their cousins the Environmental terrorists. This prompted John, a Michigan reader to note:
Thank you for your column exposing the so-called "environmental" terrorists. I have worked as an environmental profession for 25 years. The rise of so-called "environmental" terrorism is of great concern. Like the Taliban, environmental terrorists tolerate no dissent. They seek to intimidate and destroy. Their enemy is civilization itself."The building I work in was fire-bombed a few years ago. Every indication is that it was environmental terrorism. The perpetrators remain at large. I've been disappointed by the routine nature of the investigation. The terrorists do not seem to have been pursued with vigor and determination. It seems to have been chalked up as just one more attack associated with the Earth Liberation Front. If you search through the internet, you'll see that the latter group claims a long list of victims.
"I hope our nation has come to recognize that all terrorism is evil. Terrorism is a fundamental threat to everything our civilization represents--life, liberty, and the pursuit of well-being. Left unchecked, terrorism will quickly destroy the everyday freedoms we enjoy, such as the free and unintimidated exchange of ideas and viewpoints.
"I hope our nation really has begun the diligent work to defeat terrorism--wherever and whenever it gains a foothold. I know we are pursuing the Islamist terrorists with vigor. It is still an open question whether we will pursue and destroy other terrorist networks such as the environmental terrorists.
"Articles such as yours may help us all realize how we have come to tolerate attitudes and actions that would destroy us. I hope so. Thanks very much.
The point John makes is chilling. In effect, for many years we have allowed homegrown terrorists a free ride. The Earth Liberation front (http://www.earthliberationfront.com/main.shtml) publicly BRAGS about its eco-terrorism. This philosophy of tolerance for terrorism was born in the 1960s movement to romanticize "Civil Disobedience."
I remember the philosophical arguments of those days very well. I was in the midst of them. As an activist in both the peace and the civil rights movements, I was confronted with the fuzzy thinking of those pushing for civil disobedience in almost every public effort that was made.
"How," I would ask, "can you expect others to obey a new law for eliminating racial segregation when you are breaking the existing law to get YOUR law passed?"
This invariably prompted a discussing of the views of one of America's favorite 19th century essayists and poets, Henry David Thoreau, who wrote a treatise on Civil Disobedience. However, he is best known for his collection of essays known as "Walden," when he lived in the woods by a pond. His philosophy, learned of that experience, was captured in his view of wealth which, of he said, "True wealth is achieved most easily by living simply and wanting little of what money can buy. Wealth is time -- time to write, to explore Nature, to enjoy life."
He said of government, in Civil Disobedience, " 'That government is best which governs least'; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe-'That government is best which governs not at all'; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which the will have."
Of course, the most important phrase in that paragraph is "when men are prepared for it." When men are NOT prepared to accept responsibility for their actions and cooperate with one another without government you end up with anarchy. Without freedom and responsibility, you end up with the Taliban.
Last Saturday, President Bush spoke to this issue at the United Nations, speaking of the War on Terrorism when he said:
"Every nation has a stake in this cause. As we meet, the terrorists are planning more murder -- perhaps in my country, or perhaps in yours. They kill because they aspire to dominate. They seek to overthrow governments and destabilize entire regions."This threat cannot be ignored. This threat cannot be appeased. Civilization, itself, the civilization we share, is threatened. History will record our response, and judge or justify every nation in this hall."
He noted that the terrorists of today are seeking to obtain weapons of mass destruction and that
"The leaders of all nations must now carefully consider their responsibilities and their future. Terrorist groups like al Qaeda depend upon the aid or indifference of governments. They need the support of a financial infrastructure, and safe havens to train and plan and hide. ... Some governments still turn a blind eye to the terrorists, hoping the threat will pass them by. They are mistaken. And some governments, while pledging to uphold the principles of the U.N., have cast their lot with the terrorists. They support them and harbor them, and they will find that their welcome guests are parasites that will weaken them, and eventually consume them."For every regime that sponsors terror, there is a price to be paid. And it will be paid. The allies of terror are equally guilty of murder and equally accountable to justice. "
Americans are quick to see, and condemn the terrorists nurtured by Saudi Arabia under a fundamentalist Islam banner. They seem to have a blind eye to terrorists who support environmentalism, because they support the goals of environmentalism.
The Muslims around the world have had exactly the same problem with the terrorists who call themselves Muslims. Because they support Islam, they tolerate behavior that is contrary to Islamic law. Some Christians also support breaking the law, terrorizing or even killing people in the name of practicing Christianity. In fact, EVERY religion has a problem with this kind of hypocrisy.
That's not the fault of religion. It often is the fault of gullible people who can't recognize terrorism when they see it. The people of Afghanistan, who once had a culture in which one third of their doctors were women, foolishly allowed the Taliban to take control, because they thought they would bring order. They are paying a high price.
Unfortunately, America appears to also be paying a high price for some of its fuzzy thinking and political choices. We have, as a nation, through the leaders we have selected, put our money and our support behind terrorists abroad, some of whom, like Nelson Mandela of South Africa and Hashim Thaci of Kosovo, later became leaders of their countries. We have been extremely tolerant of environmental terrorists in our midst in the last 25 years.
I support President Bush's worldwide call in making all nations accountable. A good place to start is to stop looking the other way when eco-terrorists strike.
To comment: mmostert@bannerofliberty.com
The Something Undermining Our Nation
Source: WorldNetDaily; Published: March 19, 1999
Author: Holly Swanson
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