Posted on 11/02/2001 12:56:51 PM PST by Starmaker
It is both disturbing and amusing that our supposed Middle Eastern allies seek a cease fire on Afghanistan during the Muslim observance of Ramadan. Admittedly, not being of the Muslim faith, I have never celebrated this holiday. Neither, until recently, had I even been aware of its significance. I'd wager that most Americans fall into that same category, honestly assuming Ramadan is just another day off for employees of a major hotel chain. Motel Six-a-dan, Holiday Inn-a-dan, Ramadan....it's all the same to us.
Apparently, such ignorance is also prevalent amongst the populace of the Middle East, as they have rarely recognized this "holy month" if it inconvenienced their butchery of each other.
Last week an advisor to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak informed the United States it should practice restraint during Ramadan. According to the advisor — one Osama el-Baz — we should desist in our bombing missions in order to win the hearts and minds of Muslims sympathetic to our cause. He said that to proceed would be an insult which could lead to alienation.
Yeah right. Does this guy actually want us to believe the United States is adored by a large percentage of the indigenous Middle Eastern population? Some of them may adore our dollars, but even those princes, sheiks and government leaders whose affections we have purchased would prefer that America suffered a collective coronary and left them our estate in the will. Does this guy seriously want us to swallow the lie that our failure to celebrate the diversity of Islam will tip fence-sitting natives into the warm embrace of Usama bin Laden? Give me a break. Most of the Middle East wants our guts for breakfast. As for the hearts and minds nonsense, we saw how well that very same approach worked in Vietnam.
We shouldn't be seeking to win the hearts and minds of the terrorist nations. We should be stopping their hearts and blowing their minds. This is war, not an Oprah encounter group.
How much respect have the Arab nations themselves shown toward Ramadan? Between 1980 and 1988 Iran and Iraq were at war. They never stopped for Ramadan, and over one million people were killed or wounded. Egypt and Syria, in 1973, launched the "Arab-Israeli War" smack in the middle of Ramadan. In true display of the sensitivity which they claim we should exercise, the Arab's first attack fell on Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar. Between the years 1963 - 1967 Egypt certainly felt no pangs of conscience over using mustard gas on Yemeni tribesmen during Ramadan.
The argument coming from the Middle East, of course, is that this is a different situation. It's one thing for the Arab nations to ignore their own "holy days" and slaughter each other, they say. It's another matter entirely for America to despoil a religious/cultural benchmark simply because we are retaliating against sub-human cave-dwellers who killed over 5,000 of our civilians and have sworn they will stomp the life out of every man, woman and child in the United States.
As you might imagine, a small and intellectually bereft faction in this country supports a Ramadan cease fire. Unfortunately, that small faction seems to include the national press. They don't come right out and say it, but they certainly drop hints and nibble around the edges. But then, what else would you expect from the likes of Rather, Brokaw and Jennings? These talking heads of the far left thrive upon reporting that Afghan civilians have been killed during our bombing missions, painting America as an aggressor. They seem ignorant of the fact that we are attempting to destroy those who would destroy us. They refuse to fairly report that America has ample justification for an overwhelming response, claiming they are prevented from such feelings by journalistic objectivity (an oxymoron if there ever was one). After years of non-response to Middle Eastern aggression on our part they cannot comprehend the truth. That truth is, nations wage war but people die in them. Such is the nature of man. Accept it and deal with it.
The press thrives upon interviewing people like Senator Joe Biden, who called America a "high tech bully." They fawn and grovel at the feet of the opportunist John McCain, printing and televising his every word whenever he is critical of the Bush administration. McCain is critical a lot these days. His latest yammering revolves around his desire to send in ground troops...something that would lead to the unnecessary deaths of many of our men and women in uniform. Why? The basic strategy of war, to paraphrase General George Patton, is not that you die for your country. The idea, is to make the other poor, dumb bastard die for his.
We should not halt our attacks during Ramadan any more than our enemies would halt their attacks on us during Christmas, Thanksgiving or Arbor Day. The only reason they wish us to fall back lies in the fact that they sorely require some time to regroup and plan new atrocities.
There will come a time when we should stop battering Afghanistan. That time will be when its military and terrorist forces are nothing but a heap of smoldering ash or glowing glass.
That time is yet to arrive.
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