Posted on 10/01/2001 5:00:56 AM PDT by Stand Watch Listen
Now that the first shock is over, we are getting a wave of second guessing commentary on the terrorist attacks on September 11th that killed nearly 7000 people in a matter of minutes. Some of those comments, such as that of Matt Taibbi in an article entitled "Be Cool, America. War??? Think it Over" smack of simple cowardice. For example:
"Americans have a lot at stake in the upcoming war. Among those things are: our lives, our influence, and our way of life. If we go to war, we have a very good chance of losing all three. ... We've got to be cool. That's the only way we're going to get out of this. Otherwise, we'll lose everything-and we have a lot to lose. ...All we have to do is be cool. Just walk away."
Evidently, from Taibbi's point of view, our lives, our way of life, our nation, our families, our freedoms - are not worth fighting for. Then there are other groups that seem to be incapable of comprehending that this is one of those events that have caused a massive change of direction in the thinking of most Americans. Their now out-of-date prejudices and whining complaints seem to miss the whole point as they try to use the murderous terrorism of September 11 to sell their wares.
For example, there are those who actually believe, and send me e-mail in hopes I will convince you, that the terrorists that attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were not the 19 radical fundamentalist Muslims who took control of, and crashed, those four American airliners. They say that the terrorists really were in the employ of the Jews of Israel which, they claim, is the "only nation that will benefit by the destruction of the World Trade center.
How much money, do you suppose, would the Jews have to pay to get 19 Muslims to kill themselves, and 7000 others, many of them co-religionists in New York City?
The Democratic Socialists of America, which boasts of 55 members in the United States Congress announced that "The apprehension of proven suspects in this crime against humanity should be carried out through the international system of justice and international criminal procedures" but insisted that the solution to terrorism is more socialism: "Only by eliminating the political, social and economic conditions that lead people to these small extremist groups can we be truly secure."
Foreign policy commentator Eric Margolis opposed President Bush's policies, calling them a "truly foolish plan" and calls for letting "Afghans decide their own traditional way, through a national tribal council, called a loya jirga, to create a new, post-Taliban government" even though they had that opportunity after the Soviet Army withdrew from Afghanistan. That's how they ended up with the Taliban. They were fighting among themselves.
Then, of course, there is forever whining Jesse Jackson who said yesterday "War and recession is a time for bold, expansive government action at home and abroad. The US can't be the Lone Ranger abroad and win a fight against terrorists who are stateless and hidden."
Somehow, it seems to me, many of the commentators don't seem to get the picture. The picture that comes to my mind happened when the mighty Roman Empire came to an end. Rome Historian Ammianus Marcellinus is quoted in Edward Gibbons' "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" as writing that:
"The greatness of Rome was founded on the rare and almost incredible alliance of virtue and of fortune. In the strength and ardour of youth she sustained the storms of war, carried her victorious arms beyond the seas and mountains and brought home triumphal laurels from every country of the globe. At length, verging towards old age, and sometimes conquering by the terror only of her name, she sought the blessings of ease and tranquility. ...But the modern nobles measure their rank and consequence according to the loftiness of their chariots and the weighty magnificence of their dress."
In the early years of the 5th Century AD the mighty nobles of Rome were negotiating with Alaric, the chief of the invading barbarians for their comfortable lives, rather than fighting the barbarians. Twice they paid him off and twice he took the money and left. The third time, however, in 410 AD he captured Rome and sacked the city. As Gibbons put it, "Eleven hundred and sixty-three years after the foundation of Rome, the Imperial city, which had subdued and civilized so considerable a part of mankind, was delivered to the licentious fury of the tribes of Germany and Scythia."
Too late the Roman Senate discovered it did not pay to negotiate with barbarians who were determined to destroy their civilization.:
"A cruel slaughter was made of the Romans, and the streets of the city were filled with dead bodies, which remained without burial during the general consternation. The despair of the citizens was sometimes converted into fury; and whenever the barbarians were provoked by opposition they extended the promiscuous massacre to the feeble, the innocent the helpless."
Too late the people of Rome discovered that their indolent and promiscuous life style, combined with their wealth, did not protect them from the ravages of rampaging barbarians.
Will it be different for America, also a great nation that was founded on virtue and good fortune? Some, it appears, think so. The National Organization for Women, for example, expresses "shock and dismay" at what they dub the "religious intolerance" of Rev. Pat Robertson who, they inaccurately claim "is blaming organizations like NOW, by name, for this national tragedy" - the deaths of 7000 Americans at the hands of terrorists.
Pat Robertson did say:
"We have imagined ourselves invulnerable and have been consumed by the pursuit of financial gain. The focus of many in America has been on the pursuit of health, wealth, material pleasures and sexuality. Sadly, those in the churches have been as self-indulgent as those in the world."We have allowed rampant pornography on the Internet, and rampant secularism and the occult, etc. to be broadcast on television. We have permitted somewhere in the neighborhood of 35-40 million unborn babies to be slaughtered by our society.
"We have a court that has essentially stuck its finger in God's eye and said, "We are going to legislate You out of the schools and take Your commandments from the courthouses in various states. We are not going to let little children read the commandments of God. We are not going to allow the Bible or prayer in our schools.
"We have insulted God at the highest level of our government. Then, we say, "Why does this happen?" It is happening because God Almighty is lifting His protection from us. Once that protection is gone, we are vulnerable because we are a free society."
Whatever the opinions of the public on why we have become the target of 21st Century barbarians, at least, in the White House, we don't have a leader eager and willing to negotiate with them. Two days after the attack, President George W. Bush, without checking with the ACLU, proclaimed a National Day of Prayer saying:
"We pray for healing and for the strength to serve and encourage one another in hope and faith.
On Saturday, in his radio address he warned that we have a long, hard battle ahead:
"Our war on terror will be much broader than the battlefields and beachheads of the past. This war will be fought wherever terrorists hide, or run, or plan. Some victories will be won outside of public view, in tragedies avoided and threats eliminated. Other victories will be clear to all."Our weapons are military and diplomatic, financial and legal. And in this struggle, our greatest advantages are the patience and resolve of the American people.
Patience and resolve in our national goals almost never co-exists with selfish goals. Hopefully, the current wave of patriotism, patience and resolve will not be lost, as some seem to hope, in a return to what Ammianus called the pursuit "of ease and tranquility" and what Pat Robertson called the pursuit "health, wealth, material pleasures and sexuality."
To comment: mmostert@bannerofliberty.com
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