| Letter from
a father to his sons about the war against terrorism. This
is non partisan and I encourage you to read
it This
was written by a retired attorney, to his sons,
May 19, 2004. Dear
Tom, Kevin, Kirby and Ted, As your father,
I believe I owe it to you to share
some thoughts on the present world situation.
We have
over the years discussed a lot of important things,
like going to
college, jobs and so forth. But this
really takes precedence over any of those
discussions.
I hope this might give you a long term perspective
that fewer
and fewer of my generation are left to
speak to. To be sure you understand
that this is not
politically flavored, I will tell you that since
Franklin
D. Roosevelt, who led us through pre and WWII
(1933 - 1945) up to and including
our present
President, I have without exception, supported our
presidents
on all matters of international conflict.
This would include just naming a
few in addition to
President Roosevelt - WWII: President Truman - Korean
War
1950; President Kennedy - Bay of Pigs (1961);
President Kennedy - Vietnam (1961);
nine presidents (5
Republican &4 Democrat) during the cold war (1945 -
1991);
President Clinton's strikes on Bosnia (1995)
and on Iraq (1998). So be sure
you read this as
completely non-political or otherwise you will miss
the
point. Our country is now facing the
most serious threat to
its existence, as we know it, that we have faced in
your
lifetime and mine (which includes WWII). The
deadly seriousness is greatly
compounded by the fact
that there are very few of us who think we can
possibly
lose this war and even fewer who realize what
losing really means. First,
let's examine a few basics: 1. When
did the threat to us start? Many will
say September 11th, 2001. The answer as far
as the United States is concerned
is 1979, 22 years
prior to September 2001, with the following attacks on
us:
Iran Embassy Hostages, 1979; Beirut, Lebanon
Embassy 1983; Beirut, Lebanon
Marine Barracks 1983;
Lockerbie, Scotland Pan-Am flight to New York 1988;
First
New York World Trade Center attack 1993;
Dhahran, Saudi Arabia Khobar Towers
Military complex
1996; Nairobi, Kenya US Embassy 1998; Dar es Salaam,
Tanzania
US Embassy 1998; Aden, Yemen USS Cole 2000;
New York World Trade Center 2001;
Pentagon 2001. (Note
that during the period from 1981 to 2001 there were
7,581terrorist
attacks worldwide). 2. Why were we attacked?
Envy of our position, our success, and
our freedoms.
The attacks happened during the administrations of
Presidents
Carter, Reagan, Bush 1, Clinton and Bush 2.
We can not fault either the Republicans
or Democrats
as there were no provocations by any of the presidents
or their
immediate predecessors, Presidents Ford or
Carter.
4.
Who were the attackers? In each case of attacks on
US they were Muslims.
5.
What is the Muslim population of the World? 25% 6.
Isn't the Muslim Religion peaceful? Hopefully,
but that is really not material. There is
no doubt that the predominately Christian
population
of Germany was peaceful, but under the dictatorial
leadership
of Hitler (who was also Christian), that
made no difference. You either went
along with the
administration or you were eliminated. There were 5 to
6
million Christians killed by the Nazis for political
reasons (including 7,000
Polish priests).
(http://www.nazis.testimony.co.uk/7-a.htm ). Thus,
almost
the same number of Christians were killed by
the Nazis, as the 6 million holocaust
Jews who were
killed by them, and we seldom heard of anything other
than
the Jewish atrocities. Although Hitler kept the
world focused on the Jews,
he had no hesitancy about
killing anyone who got in his way of exterminating
the
Jews or of taking over the world - German, Christian
or any others.
Same with the Muslim terrorists. They
focus the world on the US, but kill all
in the way -
their own people or the Spanish, French or anyone
else. The
point here is that just like the peaceful
Germans were of no protection to
anyone from the
Nazis, no matter how many peaceful Muslims there may
be,
they are no protection for us from the terrorist
Muslim leaders and what they
are fanatically bent on
doing - by their own pronouncements - killing all of
us
infidels. I don't blame the peaceful Muslims. What
would you do if the choice
was shut up or die? 6. So who are we
at war with? There is no way we can
honestly respond that it is anyone other
than the
Muslim terrorists. Trying to be politically correct
and avoid verbalizing
this conclusion can well be
fatal. There is no way to win if you don't clearly
recognize
and articulate whom you are fighting. So
with that background, now to the two major
questions: 1.
Can we lose this war?
2. What does losing really mean? If
we are to win, we must clearly answer these two
pivotal questions. We
can definitely lose this war, and as anomalous as
it may sound, the major reason
we can lose is that so
many of us simply do not fathom the answer to the
second
question - 'What does losing mean?' It would
appear that a great many of us
think that losing the
war means hanging our heads, bringing the troops home
and
going on about our business, like post Vietnam.
This is as far from the truth
as one can get. What
losing really means is: We
would no longer be the premier country in the
world. The attacks will not subside,
but rather will
steadily increase. Remember,
they want us all dead, not just quiet. If
they had just wanted us quiet, they
would not have
produced an increasing series of attacks against us
over
the past 18 years. The plan was clearly to
terrorist attack us until we were
neutered and
submissive to them. We
would of course have no future support from other
nations for fear of reprisals
and for the reason that
they would see we are impotent and can not help them.
They will pick off the other non Muslim
nations, one
at a time. It will be increasingly easier for them.
They already
hold Spain hostage. It doesn't matter
whether it was right or wrong for Spain
to withdraw
its troops from Iraq. Spain did it because the Muslim
terrorists
bombed their train and told them to
withdraw the troops. Anything else they
want Spain to
do, will be done. Spain is finished. The
next will probably be France. Our one hope on
France is that they might see
the light and realize
that if we don't win, they are finished too, in that
they
can't resist the Muslim terrorists without us. However,
it may already be too late for France. France
is already 20% Muslim and fading
fast. If we lose the war, our production,
income, exports
and way of life will all vanish as we know it. After
losing,
who would trade or deal with us if they were
threatened by the Muslims. If
we can't stop the
Muslims, how could anyone else? The Muslims fully know
what
is riding on this war and therefore are
completely committed to winning at
any cost. We better know it too and
be likewise committed to
winning at any cost. Why
do I go on at such lengths about the results of
losing? Simple. Until we recognize
the costs of
losing, we cannot unite and really put 100% of our
thoughts
and efforts into winning. And it is going to
take that 100% effort to win.
So, how can we lose the war? Again,
the answer is
simple. We can lose the war by imploding. That is,
defeating
ourselves by refusing to recognize the enemy
and their purpose and really digging
in and lending
full support to the war effort. If
we are united, there is no way that we can lose. If
we continue to be divided,
there is no way that we can
win.
Let me give you a few examples of how
we simply don't
comprehend the life and death seriousness of this
situation.
President Bush selects Norman Mineta
as Secretary of
Transportation. Although all of the terrorist attacks
were
committed by Muslim men between 17 and 40 years
of age, Secretary Mineta refuses
to allow profiling.
Does that sound like we are taking this thing
seriously?
This is war. For the duration we are
going to have to
give up some of the civil rights we have become
accustomed
to. We had better be prepared to lose some
of our civil rights temporarily
or we will most
certainly lose all of them permanently. And don't
worry
that it is a slippery slope. We gave up plenty
of civil rights during WWII
and immediately restored
them after the victory and in fact added many more
since
then. Do I blame President Bush or President
Clinton before him? No, I blame
us for blithely
assuming we can maintain all of our Political
Correctness
and all of our civil rights during this
conflict and have a clean, lawful,
honorable war. None
of those words apply to war. Get them out of your
head.
Some of us have gone so far out in our
criticism of
the war and/or our Administration that it almost seems
they
would literally like to see us lose. I hasten to
add that this isn't because
they are disloyal. It is
because they just don't recognize what losing means.
Nevertheless,
that conduct gives the impression to the
enemy that we are divided and weakening,
it concerns
our friends, and it does great damage to our cause. Of
more recent vintage, the uproar fueled by the
politicians and media, regarding
the treatment of some
prisoners of war, perhaps exemplifies best what I am
saying.
We have recently had an issue involving the
treatment of a few Muslim prisoners
of war by a small
group of our military police. These are the type
prisoners
who just a few months ago were throwing
their own people off buildings, cutting
off their
hands, cutting out their tongues and otherwise
murdering their
own people just for disagreeing with
Saddam Hussein. And just a few years ago
these same
type prisoners chemically killed 400,000 of their own
people
for the same reason. They are also the same
type enemy fighters who recently
were burning
Americans and dragging their charred corpses through
the streets
of Iraq. And still more recently the same
type enemy that was and is providing
videos to all
news sources internationally, of the beheading of an
American
prisoner they held. Compare this with some of
our press and politicians who
for several days have
thought and talked about nothing else but the
"humiliating"
of some Muslim prisoners - not burning
them, not dragging their charred corpses
through the
streets, not beheading them, but "humiliating" them.
Can
this be for real? The politicians and pundits have
even talked of impeachment
of the Secretary of
Defense. If this doesn't show the complete lack of
comprehension
and understanding of the seriousness of
the enemy we are fighting, the life
and death struggle
we are in and the disastrous results of losing this
war,
nothing can. To bring our country to
a virtual political standstill
over this prisoner issue makes us look like
Nero
playing his fiddle as Rome burned - totally oblivious
to what is going
on in the real world. Neither we, nor
any other country, can survive this internal
strife.
Again I say, this does not mean that some of our
politicians or
media people are disloyal. It simply
means that they are absolutely oblivious
to the
magnitude of the situation we are in and into which
the Muslim terrorists
have been pushing us for many
years. Remember, the Muslim terrorists stated
goal is
to kill all infidels. That translates into all
non-Muslims - not
just in the United States, but
throughout the world. We are the last bastion
of
defense. We have been criticized
for many years as being
'arrogant'. That charge is valid in at least one
respect.
We are arrogant in that we believe that we
are so good, powerful and smart,
that we can win the
hearts and minds of all those who attack us, and that
with
both hands tied behind our back, we can defeat
anything bad in the world. We
can't. If we don't recognize this, our
nation as we know it
will not survive, and no other free country in the
World
will survive if we are defeated. And
finally, name any Muslim countries throughout the
world that allow freedom
of speech, freedom of
thought, freedom of religion, freedom of the Press,
equal
rights for anyone - let alone everyone, equal
status or any status for women,
or that have been
productive in one single way that contributes to the
good
of the World.
>This has been a long way of saying that we must be
united
on this war or we will be equated in the
history books to the self inflicted
fall of the Roman
Empire. That is, if the Muslim leaders will allow
history
books to be written or read. If we don't
win this war right now, keep a close eye
on how the Muslims take over France
in the next 5
years or less. They will continue to increase the
Muslim population
of France and continue to encroach
little by little on the established French
traditions.
The French will be fighting among themselves over what
should
or should not be done, which will continue to
weaken them and keep them from
any united resolve. Doesn't that sound
eerily familiar? Democracies don't have
their freedoms taken away from
them by some external military force. Instead,
they
give their freedoms away, politically correct piece by
politically
correct piece. And they are giving those
freedoms away to those who have shown,
worldwide, that
they abhor freedom and will not apply it to you or
even
to themselves, once they are in power. They have
universally shown that when
they have taken over, they
then start brutally killing each other over who
will
be the few who control the masses. Will we ever stop
hearing from the
politically correct, about the
"peaceful Muslims"? I
close on a hopeful note, by repeating what I said
above. If we are united,
there is no way that we can
lose. I believe that after the election, the factions
in
our country will begin to focus on the critical
situation we are in and will
unite to save our
country. It is your future we are talking about. Do
whatever
you can to preserve it. Love, Dad
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