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A Time For Response
Yes, I’m angry. At least that’s the word I’m giving to the emotion that engulfs me at present. For the past fourteen months, I’ve remained silent and watched. I’ve paused and tried to understand the geopolitical nonsense that occurs again and again throughout the Middle East. I’ve made every attempt to understand so that I might give my words added meaning- but there is no understanding in this case. I’m bewildered, stunned and aghast. My thoughts are tortured and inadequate, held hostage by my inabilities and halted by my failure to articulate.
I can recall other times in my life when words came only with extreme difficulty. Grief is no stranger. I’ve buried both of my parents, numerous friends, and even loaded body bags into waiting helicopters during my little camping trip in Vietnam. As a young state trooper, I investigated more fatal accidents than I care to share. Yes, it was difficult and sometimes tears flowed as bitter acid my body needed to dispel.
This time, though, it’s more than anger, it’s more than grief and it’s more than horror. A hideous malevolence burrows deep into the dim recesses of my psyche and invades that haven I reserve for inexpressible overloads- it is where I acknowledge evil.
From the Western perspective, there is something intrinsically unspeakable about the mindset of those who would indiscriminately slaughter thousands upon thousands of innocents. As a citizen of a predominantly Christian nation, America, I tend to think of myself as defending the moral high ground in political discussions. When arguing with other Christians (or even Jews or atheists) I might ideologically reason that the systematic slaughter of innocent women and children is unjustifiable under any circumstances. This is not some bizarre bastardization of philosophy used to justify my own twisted purposes, it is the benchmark of civilization, and at one point in time, I’d have argued that some, if not most, Muslims would agree. However, we are being forced to deal with fundamentalists who embrace such acts of barbarism as not only necessary, but noble. In fact, failure to carry out the duties of becoming a martyr will result in shame of the most ignoble kind- loss of family, peers and the opportunity to join Allah on the Righteous Wind of Jihad. This is the point where the intersection of politics and religion leaves the ethos of any civilized society and races headlong into the realm of evil. How can the world community possibly be expected to understand a philosophy dedicated to mayhem?
Therefore, we are faced with a new challenge. Blood has been drawn. The future of the world hangs in the balance. This battle will be unlike any battle ever fought. There will be few recognizable battle lines or conventions; we will be forced to declare war on a region... on a way of life. Muslim people will then be forced to choose. They will either declare their support of freedom and refuse to be manipulated by the sick rhetoric of murderous tyrants who choose to remain in absentia rather than face their sworn enemies or they will opt for ideological struggle against those they consider to be oppressors, and respond to the call to arms, rising up against The Great Satan. Then, as a nation, we will be forced to make a statement so powerful that no bloc of nations on earth will be able to formulate a response.
We simply can no longer go softly into that good night. I hope and pray we will not allow their monumental acts of cowardice to go unpunished. While my heart aches for the innocent souls who will inevitably have their lives cut short, there can no longer be any doubt that we are under attack. We are forced to deal with criminals who hide behind the mask of political and religious dogma. If our children and grandchildren are to be assured the opportunity to carry on the legacy of freedom, we must find the Al Queda and all their supporters and teach them the error of their actions, no matter how many die. Do these people think we have no resolve? Are they under the impression that we will sit idly by and allow our citizens to be mercilessly slaughtered by some unseen abomination without fear of reprisal?
What citizen of the world would allow this aggression to rest un-avenged? Only the fullest response carried out by the armed forces of the strongest nations on earth will suffice. To do less is to fail in our responsibility to the memory of those who gave their lives that we might enjoy the blessings of liberty. If we are to be condemned by the Arab world as infidels, then I submit that we respond to their disrespect with the fullness of our own displeasure. There is simply no other way to deal with these zealots. Forget politics… civilization demands it. We remember the airport at Mogadishu, and we shall never forget the U.S.S. Cole and the attacks on the World Trade Center. Hopefully, soon the Arab world shall also remember us. We can no longer afford to turn the other cheek.
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