This showed up in my email yesterday and after waking up to the news this morning, I decided to post it as a spot on statement.
That's what we think we heard on the 11th of September 2001 (When more than 3,000 Americans were killed -AD) and maybe it was, but I think it should have been "Get Out of Bed!" In fact, I think the alarm clock has been buzzing since 1979 and we have continued to hit the snooze button and roll over for a few more minutes of peaceful sleep since then.
It was a cool fall day in November 1979 in a country going through a religious and political upheaval when a group of Iranian students attacked and seized the American Embassy in Tehran. This seizure was an outright attack on American soil; it was an attack that held the world's most powerful country hostage and paralyzed a Presidency. The attack on this sovereign U. S. Embassy set the stage for events to follow for the next 25 years.
America was still reeling from the aftermath of the Vietnam experience and had a serious threat from the Soviet Union when then, President Carter, had to do something. He chose to conduct a clandestine raid in the desert. The ill-fated mission ended in ruin, but stood as a symbol of America's inability to deal with terrorism.
America's military had been decimated and down sized/right sized since the end of the Vietnam War. A poorly trained, poorly equipped and poorly organized military was called on to execute a complex mission that was doomed from the start.
Shortly after the Tehran experience, Americans began to be kidnapped and killed throughout the Middle East. America could do little to protect her citizens living and working abroad. The attacks against US soil continued.
In April of 1983 a large vehicle packed with high explosives was driven into the US Embassy compound in Beirut When it explodes, it kills 63 people. The alarm went off again and America hit the Snooze Button once more.
Then just six short months later in 1983 a large truck heavily laden down with over 2500 pounds of TNT smashed through the main gate of the US Marine Corps headquarters in Beirut and 241 US servicemen are killed. America mourns her dead and hit the Snooze Button once more.
Two months later in December 1983, another truck loaded with explosives is driven into the US Embassy in Kuwait , and America continues her slumber.
The following year, in September 1984, another van was driven into the gate of the US Embassy in Beirut and America slept.
Soon the terrorism spreads to Europe. In April 1985 a bomb explodes in a restaurant frequented by US soldiers in Madrid.
Then in August 1985 a Volkswagen loaded with explosives is driven into the main gate of the US Air Force Base at Rhein-Main, 22 are killed and the snooze alarm is buzzing louder and louder as US interests are continually attacked.
Fifty-nine days later in 1985 a cruise ship, the Achille Lauro is hijacked and we watched as an American in a wheelchair is singled out of the passenger list and executed.
The terrorists then shift their tactics to bombing civilian airliners when they bomb TWA Flight 840 in April of 1986 that killed 4 and the most tragic bombing, Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in1988, killing 259.
Clinton treated these terrorist acts as crimes; in fact we are still trying to bring these people to trial. These are acts of war.
The wake up alarm is getting louder and louder.
The terrorists decide to bring the fight to America . In January 1993, two CIA agents are shot and killed as they enter CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.
The following month, February 1993 , a group of terrorists are arrested after a rented van packed with explosives is driven into the underground parking garage of the World Trade Center in New York City. Six people are killed and over 1000 are injured. If the idiots driving the truck had known where to park it, they could have blown a hole in the "bathtub" and flooded the subway system. Still this is a crime and not an act of war? The Snooze alarm is depressed again.
Then in November 1995 a car bomb explodes at a US military complex in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia killing seven service men and women.
A few months later in June of 1996, another truck bomb explodes only 35 yards from the US military compound in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. It destroys the Khobar Towers, a US Air Force barracks, killing 19 and injuring over 500. The terrorists are getting braver and smarter as they see that America does not respond decisively.
They move to coordinate their attacks in a simultaneous attack on two US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.. These attacks were planned with precision. They kill 224. America responds with cruise missile attacks and goes back to sleep.
The USS Cole was docked in the port of Aden, Yemen for refueling on 12 October 2000 , when a small craft pulled along side the ship and exploded killing 17 US Navy Sailors. Attacking a US War Ship is an act of war, but we sent the FBI to investigate the crime and went back to sleep.
And of course you know the events of 11 September 2001. Most Americans think this was the first attack against US soil or in America . How wrong they are. America has been under a constant attack since 1979 and we chose to hit the snooze alarm and roll over and go back to sleep.
In the news lately we have seen lots of finger pointing from every high officials in government over what they knew and what they didn't know. But if you've read the papers and paid a little attention I think you can see exactly what they knew. You don't have to be in the FBI or CIA or on the National Security Council to see the pattern that has been developing since 1979.
We have been in a war for the past 25 years and it will continue until we as a people decide enough is enough. America needs to "Get out of Bed" and act decisively now. America has been changed forever.. We have to be ready to pay the price and make the sacrifice to ensure our way of life continues. We cannot afford to keep hitting the snooze button again and again and roll over and go back to sleep.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Admiral Yamamoto said ".. it seems all we have done is awakened a sleeping giant." This is the message we need to disseminate to terrorists around the world.
This is not a political thing to be hashed over in an election year this is an AMERICAN thing. This is about our Freedom and the Freedom of our children in years to come. You have to read the catalogue of events in this brief piece, ask yourself how anyone can take the position that all we have to do is bring our troops home from Iraq, sit back, reset the snooze alarm, go back to sleep, and no one will ever bother us again.
In case you missed it, World War III began in November 1979. The alarm has been ringing for years, if you believe in this please spread the word to as many people as you can especially to the young people and all those who dozed off in history class and who seem so quick to protest such a necessary military action. If you don't believe it, just forget about it -- and go back to sleep!
Michael R. Gow
I think you make a lot of valid points and chronicle the events pretty fairly...you forgot about the Iraqi warplane blasting one of our navy ships back in the 1980's (but hey, back then, Sadam was one of our guys just like Osama was as well), but other than that, you make mention of all the events.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, I do not think it is our "freedoms" that are at risk. Mom, baseball, apple pie, and Chevrolet are not at risk. Terrorists do not hate us for "our freedoms." That's President Bush's bull manure cock-a-mamie crap to dumb us down even more. The fact that we have so many of our troops in the Islamic Holy Lands, that we support Israel as strongly as we do (which means Palestinians are continually forced to live in miserable conditions), the fact that so many of our own citizens believe we have some continuing moral or biblical imperative to let Israel do whatever they want and support them, the fact that we do not truly practice what we preach but do whatever we want at the expense of thousands of innocents (especially children, elderly, and women) in Islamic lands, that we supported mass murderers during the Cold War Era as opposed to supporting nationalists who originally sought our support or may have been old U.S. allies at one point, that we continue to wonder how our oil got under their sand, these type of actions and mindsets are what has caused the attacks on US servicemen, 9/11, and our diplomatic corp abroad.
At the end of the day, we need to revise our foreign policy, "wake up" to the fact that there is a strongman back in the Kremlin who is not our friend, reconsider our relationship with Israel (modify it just a little) and force them to make peace with the Palestinians, create a Palestinian state with loads of economic opportunities for them to have a better life, reduce our reliance on oil and gasoline engines (we have the technology already) and get our troops out of Saudi Arabia...these are the things which will take the wind out of the terrorists' sails, but we should also continue to hunt them down and wipe these vermin out. They are not the majority of those who adhere to Islam. We can do this, but our government has been taken over by career politicians who do whatever their corporate masters tell them to do, which screws all of us and continues to make us hated throughout the world. Think about it...how can a country of 290 million people use over 1/4 of the world's energy and contribute over 1/4 of the world's trash and garbage on an annual basis? We need to adjust our mindsets while we still have time. The author hits it better than he knows when he tells us all to WAKE UP!!!