If Not Now, When?

To the Osama Bin Ladens and Talibans of the world, we are the enemy. Many of these people are educated in special religious schools that teach hatred of the United States and Israel along with the Koran. In Palestine, small children are taught that about the glory of being suicide bombers along with their ABCs. These things aren’t exaggerations, they are the daily reality in certain Middle Eastern nations. There are people so filled with hate for America that they celebrated in the streets when the World Trade Center went down. There were celebrations in Palestine, Lebanon, Chechnya, and even in parts of ally nations like Egypt. Their hatred of America stems from a number of things. Our freedom of religion, our prosperity, our technology, and even our influence on their culture. They also have some more recent complaints…

Because we’re not willing to let Israel be driven out of the Middle East at best and murdered to the last man at worst…we are the enemy.

Because we and the rest of world made Iraq give back Kuwait and didn’t allow them to swallow more moderate nations like Saudi Arabia and Jordan…we are the enemy.

Because we’ve kept sanctions in place on Iraq to punish Saddam Hussein for refusing to let us inspect for nukes or chemical weapons which he would happily give to terrorists…we are the enemy.

Because we don’t let Osama Bin Laden overthrow the government of Saudi Arabia, the government of a nation that is considered our staunchest Middle Eastern ally…we are the enemy.

Some people will say, especially in the upcoming months, that these attacks are our own fault because of our Middle Eastern policies. They’ll also tell us that violence only begets violence and our retaliation will only lead to more people getting hurt. Then there will those people who say that a war on terrorism is too difficult to even contemplate. But those people should understand that there is no appeasing our enemies. If we let them annihilate Israel to the last man they will not be satisfied. If we let them overthrow the governments and invade the nations of our moderate friends in Middle East like Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Kuwait, they will not be satisfied. Our very lifestyles and existence enrage them. We are their “Great Satan”.

These people should be reminded of the words of John Hancock, the first man to sign the Declaration of Independence. Then our people were considering taking on the world’s most powerful army in a war that many people thought we couldn’t win. Many people said that now wasn’t the time to fight. This was part of John Hancock’s reply…

“They tell us, sir, that we are weak — unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance, by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot?”

I say to the people now and in the future who will say that we cannot or should not try to defeat terrorism, If not now, when? After our president is killed an assassin’s bomb? After more planes are hijacked? After some monster poisons a cities water supply and murders hundreds of thousands of people? When DC is turned a radioactive hole after terrorists smuggle a nuclear weapon into our capital? If we do not have the resolve to eradicate these terrorists and the nations that continue to support them now, then when? The Osama Bin Ladens of the world have declared war on the United States. If we do not have the courage and the resolve to face and defeat them, then September the 11th will be repeated over and over again. It’s time to stand up and do whatever it takes to stop these monsters and the people that support them. If not now, when?

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