Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Attacking US wrong thing to do

America is at war.

Make no mistake, the United States is at war, even though we haven't fired the first shot in retaliation yet, nor has Congress and the President bothered to actually declare war.

Still, America is at war.

When the cowardly terrorists hijacked planes Tuesday morning, flying two into the twin towers of the World Trade Center and a third into the Pentagon, the only thing they accomplished, aside from the carnage and destruction, was to awaken a sleeping giant.

Basically, since the Carter Administration the U.S. has "turned the other cheek" when it came to terrorists and terrorism. No more.

This time the Middle Eastern infidels have gone too far  way too far, and retribution will be in blood. The only question is how much blood will have to be shed before we get to the person responsible for this act of cowardice.

Carter had his chance with the Ayatollah in Iran, but failed to do anything.

Reagan's Middle Eastern devil was Moamar Kadaffy. Reagan got Kadaffy's attention, but left him alive.

Next came Bush and Saddam Hussein. Bush, by far, had the best opportunity of the lot to deter future terrorism, but let his snake escape to strike again.

During the Clinton Administration there was no real Middle Eastern devil to deal with, other than Osama bin Laden, who hadn't attacked the U.S. No, Clinton's claim to shame was letting the United Nations send American soldiers to the front line of their fights instead of taking matters into their own hands.

He also weakened our spy system throughout the world, something we're paying for now.

Now, Bush the Younger, has his opportunity to fight with Middle Eastern madmen. Let's hope he has what it takes to finish the battle once and for all.

We, as a nation, should let it be known such acts of terrorism will not be tolerated on American soil  ever.

To do this, Bush needs to tell whoever is responsible for the attack, most likely bin Laden, they will not live to regret their action. Payment must be made in blood. He should also let the world know any nation or group aiding or harboring the fugitive will suffer the same response  in spades.

Take these words to heart, in the near future America will be at war, guns blazing, planes flying and ships a-sail.

However, before we pull a "John Wayne" and kick in the door to shoot the bad guys, we must first be sure who the bad guys are. This is actually a time for being calm and not letting anger and the desire for revenge lead us into doing something rash and foolish.

The old saying "Fools rush in" is true.

But, once the culprit is found, the full fury of America's military might should be unleashed upon them and the nation harboring them.

As Americans we are partly responsible for this happening. This is because we tend to forget the United States and its residents are the most hated people on the face of the earth. Even most of those who claim to be our allies hate us, but don't have the decency to say anything to our face because they want American dollars and aid.

We have long been complacent, even after the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. Shame on us.

Never again, though, never again. Let us now come together as a nation, as a people and let the world know the United States is still the top superpower on the planet.

One of our problems is we don't understand how those in the Middle East think. We assume they place the same value on human life we do, and we couldn't be more wrong.

Some in the Middle East believe it's a good thing to kill others in battle, such as Tuesday's terrorist attack. They believe they will be rewarded by Allah with a favored place in heaven for killing the foreign "infidels".

This is not how we think in America. However, we may need to make an exception in this case. American's need to remember there are no innocent bystanders in war, no matter on what soil the war is fought. Everyone there is a potential enemy regardless of age or gender.

We should have learned this lesson in Viet Nam, when children had grenades strapped to them and went into American compounds.

When we go to war, and we will, our troops cannot afford to offer any quarter to the enemy.