The World Changed Today

Column

By DOUG BEAZLEY -- Edmonton Sun

The images beggar description. A man stepping off a subway train in New York City this morning spoke of looking up to see the twin towers of the World Trade Center erupt in a bright sphere of flame, the black dots of human bodies plummeting through the smoke and dust.

 The events of today changed the world, instantly. The worst, most audacious terrorist attack in living memory brought back immediate memories of the 1995 terror bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, which claimed the lives of 168 people, 19 of them children.

 It struck David Rudd, an analyst for the Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies, that the theories floating around this morning as to who was responsible for the bombing - the PLO, the Taliban, Osama Bin Laden's terrorist network, some rogue nation - might be looking too far afield.

 "The scale, the location, the co-ordination ... there's no doubt that the resources involved in this attack were extraordinary," he said.

 "If in fact this was the act of a terrorist group, they're not likely to want to identify themselves, because the retribution is going to be swift and complete.

 'Instant declaration of war'

 "The PLO has too much at stake; they need to keep the Americans involved in the Middle East crisis. They can't afford to alienate them. It's difficult to see an individual nation sponsoring this, since it would amount to an instant declaration of war against the United States.

 "After the Oklahoma bombing, everybody instantly assumed some Middle East terrorist group was responsible. But they were wrong, it was a domestic attack, by American citizens. Maybe they're wrong this time. Maybe this attack came from within."

 This is the kind of attack against which no nation on earth can arm itself. Even Israel, which has lived in a virtual state of permanent military siege for the past 30 years, can't stop domestic terrorism attacks.

 "You can't put SAM sites on the top of every major building," said Rudd.

 "Obviously you're already seeing border alerts," said David Mutimer, acting director of the Centre for International and Security Studies at York University in Toronto.

 "If you want to see what happens to a country when it organizes itself around protecting against terror attacks, look at Israel. The border closures, security checks, the heavily-armed troops everywhere. That level of security involves a profound restriction of personal freedom."

 In the short term, American reaction to the attacks will include extreme border security - and the whole topic of creating an open border between Canada and the U.S. will be off the table for the foreseeable future.

 U.S. and Canadian security officials will eventually, if they haven't already, be comparing notes on how these hijackers got into the States.

 The nation wants blood

 It pays to remember that Ahmed Ressam, an agent of the Bin Laden network, was arrested in December 1999 trying to take a truckload of explosives into Washington state from B.C. The Canadian border has long been considered a chink in American's security armor.

 In the longer term, the attack could change the entire tone of America's foreign policy dialogue with the world. Mutimer said he thinks nothing can now stop President George W. Bush's anti-missile defense plan - no matter how much it costs.

 "He'll be able to get whatever resources he asks for out of Congress," he said. "Especially if this is somehow be linked to a rogue state."

 "American domestic security culture has always been viewed from the outside as being a little ... paranoid," said Rudd. "This is going to put the entire nation on edge for years, maybe decades."

 The attack could also increase the Americans' national reluctance to take part in multinational military operations, which could cripple peacekeeping missions everywhere.

 One thing is dead certain: whoever did this, for whatever reason, will be caught.

 "Every resource the U.S. can bring to bear is going to be used to track these people down," said Rudd. "They'll comb the passenger manifests, follow every lead. When they find who did this, there'll be no mercy. The American people will demand it.

 "The whole nation will want (blood)."

 Comments? Doug Beazley can be reached at dbeazley@edm.sunpub.com

 

http://www.canoe.ca/CNEWSWorldTrade0109/edm15.html

Article America Owes No Apologies For Fighting Terrorists

  Gordon Bishop  (05/21/2004)

Why are American leaders apologizing for fighting terrorists who have killed some 3,000 innocent men, women and children on 9/11 – the day that changed the course of American history, and the world?

There never should be apologies in a global war on terrorists. Terrorists are not protected by the rules of law in the Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners of war. Only POWs of nation-states warring against one another are protected. Terrorists are not organized as a nation-state. They are fighting a so-called “holy war” led by extremist Islamic fascists. There’s nothing “holy” about this war – only death to the “infidels,” including Americans, Christians, Jews and anyone not converted to Islam.

What happened at a prison in Iraq to some prisoners of war has been blown all out of proportion by the self-righteous, politically-correct liberals opposing the “War on Terror.”

President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld did not have to apologize for the humiliation suffered by some Iraqi prisoners at the hands of a few dumb soldiers.

What incited the liberals were the photos taken of naked prisoners forced to engage in some screwy behavior.

They weren’t tortured. Iraqis and terrorists know all about torture. They lived under the murderous dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, who would shoot his own generals if they disagreed with him. Hussein had torture chambers and rape rooms all across his desert realm to deal with anyone who opposed him. He killed millions of his own people during his quarter-century reign of terror.

Terrorists used the prison incident to tell the world that the U.S. military is “just as brutal” as Saddam Hussein. That’s like comparing Hussein, Hitler or Stalin to the Pope: Evil versus Good.

The liberal media had better get its act together, or the terrorists will take over and do to them what they are doing all over the world – killing those who are not part of their evil “holy war.”

It’s a sad day in American history when our own media (largely liberal) will determine the outcome of a global religious war.

President Bush refuses to play games with the liberal-socialist media in America or elsewhere throughout the world. He fully understands the consequences of “going soft” on terrorism.

Bush is right: The free world is either with us, or it’s with the terrorists.

I want to be on the side of Freedom.

And so do the vast majority of Americans and our many allies fighting the War on Terror with us, including Great Britain.

The liberal media, in their anti-American rush to judgment, are screaming for Rumsfeld’s head. They want him fired now. Bush refuses to do it because Rumsfeld is leading the War on Terror.

And Americans are still supporting Bush and Rumsfeld in their quest for victory over terrorism.

Two polls found that roughly 70 percent of Americans reject any move to oust Rumsfeld, according to the Washington Post/ABC and CNN/USA Today/Gallup polls.

Most Americans are smarter than the radical liberals who want the U.S. to pull out of Iraq and give the deadly terrorists the victory they need to continue their destruction of the Free World.

The Free World is a critical crossroads: If terrorism prevails, America and the rest of the Free World are doomed.

Is this what the liberals really want?

If you go along with the liberal agenda of the media, including Hollywood, America will no longer be a Constitutional Republic that stands for the “rule of law.”

Instead, we will witness anarchy and “mob rule” throughout the world.

It’s time for those in Free World to stand up to the terrorists and ignore the anti-war liberal activists.

 

Gordon Bishop is a national award-winning author, historian and syndicated columnist. He is the recipient of 8 Congressional Commendations, 12 National and 15 State Journalism Awards, including New Jersey's first "Journalist-of-the-Year" -- 1986/New Jersey Press Association.

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