This is the time of year when we focus on repentance. On admitting, and learning from, the lessons of the past and in making changes to prevent those mistakes (or sins) from occurring again.
Have we repented from the fact that our intelligence community must have known that a major attack on the United States was planned? Osama bin Laden had threatened it. Just a few days before 9/11, the Palestinian Media Watch organization had reported that attacks on America were being called for. U.S. flags had been burning for months (along with Israeli flags) in the disputed territories.
We know that verbal abuse leads to physical abuse, that verbal threats of suicide most often lead to the commission of this desperate act, and that threats of violence or murder most often lead to the implementation of those threats. But have we repented of ignoring this wisdom, so as to prevent these attacks?
We know that the United States, as mighty and powerful as it is, was powerless to prevent these so-called terrorist attacks. But, the U.S. was also quite powerless to win a “guerilla war” in Vietnam. Is it possible that we now have a kind of warfare (not a criminal activity) that we have still not learned how to combat from a military perspective? Is it possible that we have not learned how to win a guerilla war on a global scale? That is what radical Islamism presents to the world of free and open societies. And we are still loathe to label this attack “guerilla warfare.”
Israel is not the issue here! The majority of the Palestinian people (over 90 percent) live in Palestinian Authority controlled areas, so they are under the auspices of the PA. A very small amount of land in the pre-1967 borders of the West Bank are what they are arguing about now, not that the majority of the people are under any so-called “Israeli Occupation.”
But the war of words continues on, that the issue for the Palestinians is what they label Israeli aggression and oppression. The Palestinian people are really being oppressed by their very own, corrupt, Palestinian Authority. The PA steals money from its own people, and terrorize or kill any dissenters labeled collaborators with Israel. The PA prevents the Palestinians entry past the Israeli Green Line by inciting and promoting the people’s hatred and violence against Israel, thus crippling the Palestinian economy. But how can anyone in their right mind expect Israelis to let the Palestinian people into Israel for jobs, when the Palestinians support the suicide-bomber missions to kill and destroy innocent men, women and children. This is sheer insanity!
I have learned a great deal from the horror of this past week. The United States is not “vulnerable,” as the TV talking heads would have us to believe. I’ve learned that just as the government wants most of the population of this country to be defenseless against crime and domestic aggressors, they have made this entire nation defenseless against acts of a “guerilla war” on a global scale by refusing to recognize and admit that this is what we are up against.
Domestic criminals and international guerilla soldiers will never give up their weapons and attempts to kill and destroy. But if trained and rational individuals had the ability to have weapons on those hijacked planes, then this country would not have been so defenseless against these so-called “terrorists,” who are really soldiers in a war called a global jihad.
When the United States repents of having taken away our right to self-defense (as individuals and as a nation), then perhaps we will take this reality to heart and decide that we are going to win this war against these easily identifiable guerilla soldiers. But as of this writing, we haven’t repented yet. The talking heads in the media are still calling these perpetrators “terrorists” instead of “guerilla soldiers” – implying that it was a criminal activity rather than a kind of warfare.
The problem is not religious “fundamentalism” either – this is a word that simply means those who are adherents of the most fundamental (basic) tenets of their faith (Jewish, Christian or Moslem). So let’s not go on a “witch hunt” for the so-called “fundamentalists,” who’re being labeled terrorists by some of the talking heads. Let’s not go after all Muslims either! Most U.S. Muslims are “moderates” and not the blood-lusting radicals. Let’s go after those who are the self-appointed soldiers in this gruesome guerilla war for which the United States seems to have no stomach (just like in Vietnam). The enemy has learned (about us) from our mistakes of the past! Have we learned from these past mistakes as well?
If we don’t learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it! Doing the same thing over and over, and expecting the outcome to be different, is a recipe for insanity. We need to repent of our language that gives the perpetrators an easy out and a rationalization for their inhumane and outrageous conduct. We need the resolve to work with our allies to eradicate this world of the evil.
Terrorists? Please: Let’s get real and be clear, straight and direct about the matter. This is a guerilla war! We’ll start to win it as soon as we properly define and understand it for what it really is.
