'You have attacked America, but you have only hit our buildings. You have murdered our citizens, yet in doing so, you have merely forged yourselves as the catalyst of our American spirit, not our great conquerors. You have brought the fires of destruction to our monuments and landmarks, but in doing so have only served to light the fires of the American sense of justice and the free world's sense of compassion and kinship.'

While we mourned the loss of our brothers and sisters after the horrible tragedy that took place on Tuesday, September 11th, the free world mourned with us. While the American flag flew at half-mast around the country, it also flew in support around the world. To show their support, our brothers and sisters in the United Kingdom played the American National Anthem during one of their most sacred and honored traditions, the changing of the guards. Thousands of Russian citizens made pilgrimage to the US embassy in Moscow to pay their respects with prayers, flowers and tears. On Friday, September 15th, the free world united in sharing moments of silence to honor the dead and show support for the United States. Each and every one of these nations has also made it publicly known that they support and join the United States in this fight, and as United Kingdom Prime Minister, Tony Blair said, "What happened on Tuesday was an attack not just upon the United States but upon the civilized world...There has to be a response to bring those terrorists who committed this attack to account and we will play our full part in that."

As much as I am ashamed to be a part of a world where men would commit such evils, I am equally proud, if not more so, to also be a citizen of a world where so many nations would put aside their own differences to unite and stand with America and vow to fight such an evil. This is not only the American way, it is the way of the civilized and free world...a world that such evils would never know or understand.

Was this our fault? Is the United States completely innocent in its' dealings in the Middle East? Was the American Government asking for some sort of retaliation in response to its' handling of these affairs? I mean, we have been bombing Iraq for no apparent reason for years, right? We give billions of US dollars to Israel to fund their oppression of the Arabs, right? We secured the presence of Israel in the 'Holy Land' and are therefore responsible for the fighting and the wars there, right?

WRONG, dead wrong.

Let's start with a little history.

The Jewish state of Israel was instituted by the British in 1923. The area that Israel occupies now was under the control of the Ottoman Empire at the time of World War I. The Turks were allied with Germany and when Germany lost the war, so did the Turks. In 1916 control of the southern portion of their Ottoman Empire was mandated to France and Great Britain under the Sykes-Picot Agreement. This agreement divided the Arab region into lands to be controlled by France and Britain. The lands known as Lebanon and Syria were assigned to France while Palestine (what is now comprised of Jordan, Israel and The West Bank) was assigned to Britain. The British were largely considering establishing a national Jewish homeland here and by 1923, they did just that. The British basically took the whole of Palestine and organized 75% as an Arab homeland, with the remaining 25% instituted as the national Jewish homeland. This did not sit well with the 'Palestinian Arabs' as they launched numerous attacks against the Jewish Homeland in an attempt to drive them out and occupy the land for themselves. At first, the British tried to maintain some sort of order but soon gave up in lieu of huge oil deposits having been found in the Arab region at that time. The British had larger interests in the region and left the Jews and Arabs to settle this on their own. The fighting lasted many years and eventually lead to the formation of the 'Hagana' (later known as the Israeli Defense Force). The Hagana, along with the aid of an underground resistance force, the Irgun which was led by Menachem Begin (who later became Prime Minister of Israel) fought the Arabs for many years and eventually managed to drive out the British influence.

In 1947 the British decided to turn the matter over to the United Nations. In response to the turmoil in the region, the UN adopted resolution 181. This plan essentially took the 25% that the Jews were given previously by the British and lopped off another 10% to form a second Arab state. The Jews accepted the resolution but the Arabs refused it. On May 14, 1948 the Palestinian Jews declared their own national State of Israel. On May 15th, Israel found itself at war with a total of seven Arab armies (Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Yemen, Trans-Jordan, Iraq and Saudi Arabia).

This war lasted a little over 1 year and the end result was a victory against all seven of the invading armies and a Jewish state that was only a little larger than the one proposed by resolution 181. In May of 1967, the armies of Egypt, Syria and Jordan mobilized along Israel's borders in preparation for a massive invasion against Israel. The conflict lasted only six days and in the end, Israel defeated all three Arab forces and took control of the entire Sinai Desert from Egypt, the Golan Heights from Syria and the West Bank from Jordan. In 1982 Israel actually gave the Sinai Desert back to Egypt.

The US had nothing to do with the conflicts in Israel, this was a war waged between Jews and Arabs over 25% percent (later reduced to 15%) of the land that was mandated to the British after WWI. We do not fund Israel in order to maintain the alleged 'oppression of Arabs' in the Middle East. We aid Israel because they are our allies. We need them as much as they need our money and support. They are essential for the US to maintain a defense against any hostile nation that would attempt to take control of US interests in The Middle East. We give plenty of money and aid to the very countries that many would say that the United States helps Israel to oppress. In fact, we used to give plenty of aid to Palestine, until they began testing nuclear weapons, weapons which they had previously maintained that they were not manufacturing. That is the only reason why we pulled aid out of Palestine, they failed to meet our conditions for the assistance. Now that Palestine is cooperating with our war on terrorism, we are giving them large amounts of money and supplies. The U.S. will most likely use the aid given to both Palestine and Israel to help negotiate a peaceful agreement between the two...but only time can tell the merits of such an assumption.

And what of Iraq and the conflicts associated with The United States? What are we doing there? Why do we bomb Iraq? Does the name, Saddam Hussein ring any bells? It is no secret that the world, which obviously includes the United States, is largely dependent on oil as a resource. In fact, the nations that supply this oil are just as dependent on the money we give for this resource as we are on the resource itself. Without the oil monies, the Middle East would be little more than a giant sandbox filled with terrorists and holy wars. Without the oil supply, our way of life and commerce would cease to function. We have a critical interest in what goes on regarding our supply of this resource. We also have a critical interest in keeping tyrants from gaining too much power. Granted, this sounds very self-serving, but after the horror and reality of Hitler and World War II, the United States made a personal statement to the rest of the world that we are committed to the survival of liberty and will face and defend against any threat to that survival. John F. Kennedy said it best...

"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and success of liberty."

--John F. Kennedy

Part of the fight for the success and survival of liberty and freedom is to take note and make sure that tyrannical governments, hostile nations or terrorist regimes do not amass too much power and threaten the freedoms of others. The United States has committed itself to keeping tyrants like Hussein at bay. Who would argue this? Hussein has admitted to having nuclear and biological weapons of mass destruction...he has also admitted his intent to use them. He employed various small-scale biological weapons during the Desert Storm conflict, the effects of which plague many of our soldiers to this day. A man like this with too much power is a dangerous thing to a free society. Granted, the bombings from the US injure and kill innocents, but they also keep Hussein and his forces weak enough to remove him as a threat. If we had allowed him to invade Kuwait and gain control of the majority of the oil supply, the United States and the rest of the world would be within his stranglehold... he would be free to do as he pleased. This is a return that the world cannot bear, and the loss of innocent lives within an enemy territory is a small price to pay to avoid such a return.

Make no mistake, I feel for the innocents who are killed by these bombings, but my fear of tyrants outweighs any sentiment that I could possibly muster. No nation is completely innocent of vile actions, the United States has committed it's own fair share of atrocities and made its own fair share of blunders, as has every other nation on this earth. With that having been said, there is absolutely no act committed in the history of The United States or any other free nation that would justify the attacks made on September 11th, 2001. The thing we need to look at is not whether or not the US is innocent in its' foreign actions, but whether or not the foreign actions of the United States warranted such an attack. Nothing the US has ever done can justify this, nothing. We have continuously maintained the fight for liberty and that fight has brought about many casualties upon the soil of almost every land on this earth, but we have never waged a battle in the name of tyranny or oppression. We have fought the war for freedom on almost every continent and we will continue to do so, regardless of the consequences. These nations that would allow terrorists shelter inside their borders are just as guilty as the terrorists themselves. And I say this guilt lies not only in their failure to act against the terrorist element, but also in their own employment of such terrorists to fit their own political ends. Tyrant nations and governments routinely employ terrorists to destabilize and injure their enemies. They do this not within the confines of war, but rather, instead of war. When the attacks become public these nations and governments hide behind the veil of autonomous terrorism and simply say, 'we know nothing'. The truth is, there is no such thing as autonomous terrorism. Every terrorist organization gets their funding from somewhere, every one of them sleeps on a bed built atop the rock and foundation within some country’s borders, and every one of them recruits and trains on lands within someone’s nation...they all have a home and they all get their money from someone. Any nation, group, government or organization that funds, aids or harbors terrorists are guilty by accessory, without question. It is time we hold not only the terrorists accountable, but also those who aid them, those who harbor them and those who support them. In the name of liberty and in the interest of the safety of the free and civilized world, terror must be dealt with and eradicated by a swift and powerful hand. It is time for the terrorists to be afraid, it is time for them to face the eyes and the justice of the world. We must sound out in one, solid and unmistakable voice, "This will not be tolerated, never again will we be victims of your terror, we will be survivors and we will be instruments of a decisive justice, but we will never again be afraid".

There is no conflict between liberty and safety. We will have both or neither."

-- Ramsey Clark

Of Ideas, Shadows and Ghosts...

So, who is to blame? Who are we fighting? The answer is twofold, with the second being much tougher to assess. Firstly, we are fighting men and women who would commit foul acts of terrorism and those that would support them. The second answer consists of ideas, shadows and ghosts.

The Idea:
The idea that violence and destruction would change the minds of men in place of diplomacy and the political foundation and the idea that wars are to be waged in secret and against civilian targets...that is the idea. The only way to fight an idea is to institute another idea to replace it. We must make it loud and clear that violence is not the way to persuade the free world towards your ideas, it is only the way to persuade the world into reaction and retaliation. We must also make it clear that civilian targets are not acts of honor, they are acts of cowardice and they will only lead to more war, more fighting, and more violence. You cannot destroy a message, you can only destroy the messenger.


The Shadow:
The shadow is the network of terrorists that are situated around the globe. They are always there, distinguishable only by their acts of violence and destruction. Men like Osama Bin Laden, whose only contacts with the free world are his messages of hate, his acts of violence and his minions of destruction. We must stop being afraid of shadows. We must be able to look straight into the darkness and expose the shadows for what they truly are, nothing. It is time to turn the lights on and eradicate the darkness.


The Ghost:
We are haunted by the ghosts of war, the skeletons within the closets of our consciences. The images of violent conflict turn our stomachs and raise our bile. The terrorist counts on this, he counts on the fact that he is attacking a civilized world and that it's citizens would criticize a violent reaction as heavily and adamantly as they would the acts of terrorists themselves. They count on the fact that we will handcuff ourselves into submission all in the name of humanity, the very humanity that they seem so fit to sacrifice for their own despicable purposes. We must understand that although violence does not solve everything, it will solve some things...the rest is left to diplomacy, politics and policy. The fear of global and universal retaliation for these acts will stop terrorism. Maybe not in its' entirety, but it will send the message that acts of terrorism will absolutely not be tolerated and that the consequences for committing such acts are swift and severe. We must reconcile our own personal feelings and realize that there will be more innocent blood shed, more American blood shed, but in order to communicate with terrorists we must speak to them in the only language that they know, violence. The terrorists are fueled by a fire that is only extinguished in death, if we cannot capture and disable them, then we must fight them. They will never surrender, and in knowing this, we must never relent in our pursuit against them...we must not back down and we must not slow our pace...ever.

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

-- Edmund Burke (1729-1797)

But I digress, we must first focus on the men, the instruments of terrorism. This is not as easy as it sounds, yet is much more simple than you may think. We shall strike back against these men, we will hit them, we will hurt them, we will attack anyone who would support them and we will not relent until they have been completely and permanently subdued, disabled or eradicated from our society. That is our ultimate action, and will stay the course.

We need to make a strong physical presence upon these terrorists and the nations that support them. What that means is that we must act quickly, decisively and with military force when necessary. We must understand that there is a difference between any attack that we should mount in retaliation and the terrorist attacks. We will be held accountable to the nations of the world for our actions, our mistakes and our own atrocities. We do not have the shield of 'autonomous rebels' to hide behind like the terrorist nations do. We will be judged upon the manner in which we execute any retaliation, so we must always persist in being the picture of just action, as well as the instrument of justice. Our current military action is the first step towards these ends, and we take that step with sure footing as we have the support and consent of the majority of the free world behind us in these campaigns.

We have asked that the Taliban hand Osama Bin Laden over in the past, they asked for more proof of his guilt. We offered them the proof in his own words, a confession to the USS Cole attack from his own mouth on one of his propaganda videos...the Taliban then refused. They assured the world that Bin Laden was under strict control and would not be able to commit such crimes again. They pledged that the use of the internet and his satellite phone were revoked and that he could not organize or oversee any terrorist actions again. We then put a 5-million-dollar price on Bin Laden’s head and made him the FBI’s most wanted terrorist. And it stood at that until September 11th, 2001.


That was then, this is the future...

According to the current evidence, Bin Laden was not as closely guarded as the Taliban would like you to believe. He was able to strike out against his enemies from behind the Taliban’s barrier of rhetoric and denial. We bear witness to the effect of this each day on the news and in the newspapers. We have seen the fire in the sky and the ashes upon our American soil. Despite Bin Laden’s own admission of responsibility for the attacks on September 11th, the Taliban continues to keep this terrorist as their bedfellow. They have already said that they will never hand Bin Laden over to the US and they have also warned that any country that aids the US in any military operation will be considered an enemy of the Taliban and Afghanistan. They have declared that all Muslims across the world should view any military action from the US as an act against them and that they should kill any American or non-Muslim that they encounter. Make no mistake; this is not a war between Americans and Muslims, though the Taliban would love to make you think otherwise. We are at war with terrorism, we are at war with the Taliban, we are at war with Osama Bin Laden and all of his soldiers and supporters, but we are not at war with Afghanistan.

The only thing that I can say for certain is that now that we have engaged our targets, we cannot relent until the enemy is obliterated or disabled, permanently. During our military actions we must take heed of the Jihad mentality. They are willing and eager to die for their beliefs, so long as they can take an enemy with them. A quote from General George S. Patton shows where our own focus should be...

"The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his."

We must understand and accept this, because there will be no surrender. It is not going to be easy, but nothing of value ever is.

In my final thoughts, I would like to offer my condolences to the American people and to the people of the free and civilized world. What happened on September 11th, 2001 will live on in infamy throughout history. Life in America will never be the same, life in the world will never be the same. It can get better, and it can get worse, that part is up to the citizens of this fair world to decide. That part is in our hands now.


To the American People, I say:

Let your hearts soar and your spirits rise, but in doing so do not forget to stop and mourn for those that have been lost. There will always be great tragedies, but from them will always come our greatest triumphs. The landscape is scarred and our hearts and souls are wounded, but our collective American pride is stronger than it ever has been. The fact that we have had too many volunteers for the recovery operations and blood donations demonstrates the strength of this pride. Have you ever heard of such a response to a tragedy that organizations actually had to turn away those wanting to help others in need? America is not a country, it is not a government, it is not a person...it is an ideal, a belief. America is the belief that all men and women are created equal, it is up to the individual to decide what to do with that equality. America is the ideal that all races, all creeds, all religions and all nationalities can live on the same piece of rock and be largely devoid of the internal suffering and conflict that is so prevalent in many other countries around the world. For the most part, we do honor this belief, even amidst the natural struggle for humankind to grasp this concept. Keep this ideal high in your heads and close to your hearts and you will always be free from the vilest of evils on this earth, hatred based on belief or race. I urge all of you not to give in to the impulse of fear and strike out against your neighbor, especially when your neighbor is of another race, creed, religion or color. Arab Americans, Muslim Americans and any American of foreign descent or nationality are still Americans, and they deserve the respect that comes with such nomenclature. This works in the reverse as well, we should not be fighting amongst ourselves for any reason.


To the citizens of the free and civilized world, I say:

Thank you for your support. It is often said that many a nation would not exist as it does today without American support or intervention. While this may be true, please know that as Americans, we understand that without the support from all of the civilized nations on this earth, the world could not be the place it is today. Despite all of the evil in this world, there is always an abundance of good will and generous nature. Every nation can take credit from that. This tragedy was not an attack against America, it was an attack against the ideals of the free and civilized world. I, as well as many Americans applaud you for understanding this and your willingness to stand with America in this fight we have begun. The journey will be hard and the road will be long, but thanks to you, we will never be too far from a place that we can call home, even if only for the night. Again, I say, "Thank You".


To the victims of this tragedy, I say:

Never before have I witnessed such a senseless and ignorant loss of life. I do not believe in a god, but with the chance that I am wrong about him and you are listening now from Heaven, I want to say that I am saddened and sorry. There is nothing that I can say except that you will not be forgotten...you will always be honored and you will always be missed.


To the men and women who have sacrificed their time, energy and their lives in the rescue and recovery operations, I say:

A generation that is said to be without heroes have just found more than they will ever need. Nothing I can ever say will truly express the gratitude, praise, honor and admiration that each and every one of you are so deserving of. Despite this, I still say, thank you. Your valiant and heroic efforts eclipse anything that I have ever witnessed or even read about. You are the truest of heroes. Sir Winston Churchill once said, "If you are going through hell, keep going", your relentless pursuit of the rescue operations personifies this quotation in both spirit and execution. I read a story shortly after the rescue operations began, that among the donations and supplies being sent to the rescue workers, there was a shipment of 'Superman T-Shirts', I find no garment or decoration more fitting.


To those that are responsible and those that would harbor or support them, I say:

You have attacked America, but you have only hit our buildings. You have murdered our citizens, yet in doing so, you have merely forged yourselves as the catalyst of our American spirit, not our great conquerors. You have brought the fires of destruction to our monuments and landmarks, but in doing so have only served to light the fires of the American sense of justice and the free world's sense of compassion and kinship. Long ago, Robert Frost said, "I hold it to be the inalienable right of anybody to go to hell in his own way". You have chosen your way to hell, your way to destruction...you have awoken the sleeping dragon. Ignore the thunder of our rockets and our wrath and sleep peacefully tonight. In the morning, make your peace with whatever god you choose, for your days are numbered...we are coming for you...the whole world is coming for you.

"The state of the free world is that it's angry, outraged, and hurt... but it is far from broken and it ultimately remains free."

"There's No Mystery Here..."