America, wake up! (a very good article) |
| Posted by: aivee | | I received this article from my work e-mail...
America WAKE UP!
That's what we think we heard on the 11th of September 2001 and maybe it
was, but I think it should have been "Get Out of Bed!" In fact, I think the alarm clock has been buzzing since 1979 and we have continued to hit the
snooze button and roll over for a few more minutes of peaceful sleep since
then.
It was a cool fall day in November 1979 in a country going through a
religious and political upheaval when a group of Iranian students attacked
and seized the American Embassy in Tehran. This seizure was an outright
attack on American soil; it was an attack that held the world's most
powerful country hostage and paralyzed a Presidency. The attack on this sovereign US embassy set the stage for the events to follow for the next 23 years. America was still reeling from the aftermath of the Viet Nam experience and had a serious threat from the Soviet Union when then, President Carter, had to do something. He chose to conduct a clandestine raid in the desert.
The ill-fated mission ended in ruin, but stood as a symbol of America's
inability to deal with terrorism. America's military had been decimated and downsized / right sized since the end of the Viet Nam war. A poorly trained, poorly equipped and poorly organized military was called on
to execute a complex mission that was doomed from the start.
Shortly after the Tehran experience, Americans began to be kidnapped and
killed throughout the Middle East. America could do little to protect her
citizens living and working abroad. The attacks against US soil continued.
In April of 1983 a large vehicle packed with high explosives was driven into
the US Embassy compound in Beirut. When it explodes, it kills 63 people.
The alarm went off again and America hit the Snooze Button once more.
Then just six short months later a large truck heavily laden down with over 2500 pounds of TNT smashed through the main gate of the US Marine Corps headquarters in Beirut. 241 US servicemen are killed.
America mourns her dead and hit the Snooze Button once more.
Two months later in December 1983, another truck loaded with explosives is
driven into the US Embassy in Kuwait, and America continues her slumber.
The following year, in September 1984, another van was driven into the gates of the US Embassy in Beirut and America slept.
Soon the terrorism spreads to Europe.
In April 1985 a bomb explodes in a restaurant frequented by US soldiers in Madrid. Then in August a volkswagen loaded with explosives is driven into the main gate of the US Air Force Base at Rhein-Main, 22 are killed and the Snooze. Alarm is buzzing louder and louder as US soil is continually attacked.
Fifty-nine days later a cruise ship, the Achille Lauro is hijacked and we
watched as an American in a wheelchair is singled out of the passenger list and executed. The terrorists then shift their tactics to bombing civilian airliners when they bomb TWA Flight 840 in April of 1986 that killed 4 and the most tragic bombing, Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988,
killing 259. America wants to treat these terrorist acts as crimes; in fact
we are still trying to bring these people to trial.
These are acts of war the Wake Up alarm is louder and louder.
The terrorists decide to bring the fight to America. In January 1993, two
CIA agents are shot and killed as they enter CIA headquarters in Langley,
Virginia. The following month, February 1993, a group of terrorists are arrested after a rented van packed with explosives is driven into the
underground parking garage of the World Trade Center in New York City. Six people are killed and over 1000 are injured. Still this is a crime and not
an act of war?
The Snooze alarm is depressed again.
Then in November 1995 a car bomb explodes at a US military complex in
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia killing seven service men and women. A few months later in June of 1996, another truck bomb explodes only 35 yards from the US military compound in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. It destroys the Khobar Towers, a US Air Force barracks, killing 19 and injuring over 500.
The terrorists are getting braver and smarter as they see that America does
not respond decisively. They move to coordinate their attacks in a
simultaneous attack on two US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. These attacks were planned with precision, they kill 224.
America responds with cruise missile attacks and goes back to sleep.
The USS Cole was docked in the port of Aden, Yemen for refueling on 12
October 2000, when a small craft pulled along side the ship and exploded killing 17 US Navy Sailors. Attacking a US War Ship is an act of war, but we sent the FBI to investigate the crime and went back to sleep.
And of course you know the events of 11 September 2001. Most Americans think this was the first attack against US soil or in America. How wrong they are.
America has been under a constant attack since 1979 and we chose to hit the snooze alarm and roll over and go back to sleep.
In the news lately we have seen lots of finger pointing from every high
official in government over what they knew and what they didn't know. But if
you've read the papers and paid a little attention I think you can see
exactly what they knew. You don't have to be in the FBI or CIA or on the
National Security Council to see the pattern that has been developing since 1979.
The President is right on when he says we are engaged in a war. I think we
have been in a war for the past 23 years and it will continue until we as a
people decide enough is enough.
America has to "Get out of Bed" and act decisively now. America has changed forever. We have to be ready to pay the price and make the sacrifice to ensure our way of life continues. We cannot afford to hit the Snooze Button again and roll over and go back to sleep. We have to make the terrorists know that in the words of Admiral Yamamoto after the attack on Pearl Harbor "that all they have done is to awaken a sleeping giant."
If you agree, or even think this is worth thinking about, pass it on and
maybe it will eventually reach the people who think this is still about
"OIL".
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS!!! | | Reply To this Message
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| Posted by: DrPoke | |
| quote: |
Originally posted by aivee
.....
It was a cool fall day in November 1979 in a country going through a
religious and political upheaval when a group of Iranian students attacked
and seized the American Embassy in Tehran.
In April of 1983 a large vehicle packed with high explosives was driven into
the US Embassy compound in Beirut. When it explodes, it kills 63 people.
Then just six short months later a large truck heavily laden down with over 2500 pounds of TNT smashed through the main gate of the US Marine Corps headquarters in Beirut. 241 US servicemen are killed.
Two months later in December 1983, another truck loaded with explosives is
driven into the US Embassy in Kuwait, and America continues her slumber.
The following year, in September 1984, another van was driven into the gates of the US Embassy in Beirut and America slept.
In April 1985 a bomb explodes in a restaurant frequented by US soldiers in Madrid. Then in August a volkswagen loaded with explosives is driven into the main gate of the US Air Force Base at Rhein-Main, 22 are killed and the Snooze..
The terrorists decide to bring the fight to America. In January 1993, two
CIA agents are shot and killed as they enter CIA headquarters in Langley,
Virginia .
Then in November 1995 a car bomb explodes at a US military complex in
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia killing seven service men and women. A few months later in June of 1996, another truck bomb explodes only 35 yards from the US military compound in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia . It destroys the Khobar Towers, a US Air Force barracks, killing 19 and injuring over 500.
They move to coordinate their attacks in a
simultaneous attack on two US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. These attacks were planned with precision, they kill 224.
The USS Cole was docked in the port of Aden, Yemen for refueling on 12
October 2000, when a small craft pulled along side the ship and exploded killing 17 US Navy Sailors.
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OK I've read your post and can see no referrence there to Iraq, so why do all these attacks in different countries lead to a war against Iraq. It seems you have put 2and2 together and come up with 5.
I am all for an international war against terrorism. In the UK we've been fighting IRA terrorists for the last 30years, they were mostly funded by american citizens and support groups like Noraid. Should we have killed the Noraid representatives? We worked through differences and continued dialogue, allbeit slowly, amid terrorist attacks and counter-terrorism, and have seen some glimmers of hope, some of the causes for that terrorism have been ended, but still there is a long way to go.
Most of these terrorists in the middle east seem to come from Islamist fundamentalist backgrounds such as are found in Saudi, Yemen, Algeria. The popular uprising against Saddam at the end of the gulf war was by the mainly Shiite muslims of the south, USA stepped back from their initial support for this uprising when they were advised the Shiites may develop an Islamic state like Iran.
I think the terrorist groups we are after at the moment have no allegiance with a particular government and need to be tracked down in each country that they live in, this needs the cooperation of countries where they reside. Most European countries are actively involved in this, with terrorist arrests in UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Russia. What is needed also is a very good relationship with governments of the middle east, to get them on our side so they can help to actively flush out the terrorist, I worry that with war seems to be hardening attitudes to the west in the general middle east, and more importantly their governments.
The UK started out with a similar situation in Northern Ireland to what may develop in Iraq, disparate groups involved in random terrorist bombings of civilian and army targets before disappearing into the general population. This can drag on for years, once you eventually make progress the next generation has grown up and adopted the fight from the previous generation.
I think all the cash spent on the war would be better spent locating and destroying the terrorist cells around the world. Instead this war seems to be a catalyst for the creation of even more cells and networks.
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| Posted by: Aurélie | | Destroying the terrorist cells... that's not spectacular enough ! too long, difficult, an ungrateful job for Bush! Bush needed to give his people a better show!
so when Perle and Wolfowitz brought him their project for an american hegemony, he just found it perfect... | | Reply To this Message
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| Posted by: aivee | | If Saddam Hussein was able to use his chemical weapons to his own people, what made you think that he will never use his chemical weapons to other countries especially the US? Pres. Bush doesn't want to just sit and wait around when Saddam Hussein will use them to us, so if you can prevent him for not using his chemical weapons, then do it... Why would you wait for him to do something to us when you can prevent him from doing so? That's what we did with the other Middle Eastern countries, we just waited and sit around, that's why they continued doing them... So Pres. Bush didn't want it to happen again... | | Reply To this Message
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| Posted by: aivee | | BTW, haters will say that the US was the one who gave Iraq the chemical weapons., which is true... But we didn't tell him to kill innocent lives without doing anything bad to him, or them a threat to his life... If your parents give you knife, and you stab somebody with that knife, is it your parent's fault? If you say yes, then you are not taking responsibilities for your own actions... | | Reply To this Message
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| Posted by: Sable | |
| quote: |
| BTW, haters will say that the US was the one who gave Iraq the chemical weapons., which is true... But we didn't tell him to kill innocent lives without doing anything bad to him, or them a threat to his life... If your parents give you knife, and you stab somebody with that knife, is it your parent's fault? If you say yes, then you are not taking responsibilities for your own actions... |
may be you think he was going to use the weapons against desert butterflys ?
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| Posted by: cable166 | |
| quote: |
Originally posted by DrPoke
OK I've read your post and can see no referrence there to Iraq, so why do all these attacks in different countries lead to a war against Iraq. It seems you have put 2and2 together and come up with 5.
I am all for an international war against terrorism. In the UK we've been fighting IRA terrorists for the last 30years, they were mostly funded by american citizens and support groups like Noraid. Should we have killed the Noraid representatives? We worked through differences and continued dialogue, allbeit slowly, amid terrorist attacks and counter-terrorism, and have seen some glimmers of hope, some of the causes for that terrorism have been ended, but still there is a long way to go.
Most of these terrorists in the middle east seem to come from Islamist fundamentalist backgrounds such as are found in Saudi, Yemen, Algeria. The popular uprising against Saddam at the end of the gulf war was by the mainly Shiite muslims of the south, USA stepped back from their initial support for this uprising when they were advised the Shiites may develop an Islamic state like Iran.
I think the terrorist groups we are after at the moment have no allegiance with a particular government and need to be tracked down in each country that they live in, this needs the cooperation of countries where they reside. Most European countries are actively involved in this, with terrorist arrests in UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Russia. What is needed also is a very good relationship with governments of the middle east, to get them on our side so they can help to actively flush out the terrorist, I worry that with war seems to be hardening attitudes to the west in the general middle east, and more importantly their governments.
The UK started out with a similar situation in Northern Ireland to what may develop in Iraq, disparate groups involved in random terrorist bombings of civilian and army targets before disappearing into the general population. This can drag on for years, once you eventually make progress the next generation has grown up and adopted the fight from the previous generation.
I think all the cash spent on the war would be better spent locating and destroying the terrorist cells around the world. Instead this war seems to be a catalyst for the creation of even more cells and networks. |
you have way to much to say! if your country has been attacked over and over again maybe you would see the things the way i do..why dont you move to iraq since you think it is such a wonderful place? man these anti war people really P1ss me off!!!!!!!!!!!!
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| Posted by: DrPoke | |
| quote: |
Originally posted by cable166
you have way to much to say! if your country has been attacked over and over again maybe you would see the things the way i do..why dont you move to iraq since you think it is such a wonderful place? |
I was right in a previous post when I said you couldn't read. Where in my post does it say I think Iraq is a wonderful place? - nowhere, you must be dyslexic or something. The reason I don't see things the way you do was written in my post, in N. Ireland the troubles are beginning to be solved by resolving the issues surrounding terrorism, not by dropping more bombs, you are a bigger moron than I initially thought. Also nowhere in my post does it say I am anti-war, it just suggests better ways of solving the terrorist issues. You say I have too much to say, rather that than a small amount of useless insults 
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| Posted by: aivee | |
| quote: |
Originally posted by Sable
may be you think he was going to use the weapons against desert butterflys ? |
Sable, are you trying to be funny?
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| Posted by: isildur06 | | have you ever thought why US is the target of all terrrrist activities, and how do these people get this inspiration for such inhumane , mad terrorist attacks?
newton has explained this a few centuries ago, law of action-reaction.
just by writing the tragedy of 50.000 civillians killed in american bombardments in north vietnam, an article longer than yours can be written. the terrorism against your country will stop, when you stop your countries terrorist acts in overseas. | | Reply To this Message
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| Posted by: aivee | |
| quote: |
Originally posted by isildur06
the terrorism against your country will stop, when you stop your countries terrorist acts in overseas. |
You know what's the problem with the world? Other countries are expecting too much from the US. If we do help other countries, they think that we are the bad people and hate us because they think that we are trying to rule them... If we don't do anything and just ignore them, we are still the bad people because they will say that we already know what's going on with their country, and yet we just ignore it... Remember the Kosovo war few years back? When the UN and the US let them take care of themselves first, the people there blamed the US and the UN for not acting right away when we already knew what was going on with their country, so we did help them... No matter what we do, other countries will still hate us, but go to any US Embassies in other countries including your country's US embassy, and you will see a very long line of people there every single day trying to apply for US visas to have a good life in the US... We have to accept the fact that the US is the richest country in the world, and it's very hard to get a US visa because almost all people in other countries want to go to the US to have a way better life... Other people are just bitter that they will never admit it...
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| Posted by: trustno1atall | |
| quote: |
Originally posted by DrPoke
OK I've read your post and can see no referrence there to Iraq, so why do all these attacks in different countries lead to a war against Iraq. It seems you have put 2and2 together and come up with 5.
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Here, read my post.
I agree that the way the U.S. entered into the war wasn't too cool. But at the same time, Saddam's been dodging the U.N. inspectors for a decade. The U.N. inspectors failed largely. The U.S. saw the chance and took it. Yes, it's a calculated risk, but only 10 or 20 years from now, the world can judge what is taking place right now.
Why Iraq? Iraq is the greatest threat because it has INVADED it's neighbors, not once, but twice. In fact, only after 3 years ended after the Iran/Iraq war, Iraq invaded Kuwait. I remind you that it had strategic maps of Saudia Arabia. Iraq is an instability in the already-unstable Middle East.
Iraq has USED chemical weapons not just once, but both on Iranians AND Kurds. What makes you think they won't use nukes when they can make them? Hello? They don't require 5,000 km range ballistic missiles to reach the U.S. They just need one they can smuggle via boat unto the U.S. shores. How do you think drug smugglers get drugs to America? THAT is why Iraq is a target.
Israel views Iraq as one of the major threats, if not it's worse threat in the Middle-East. Now, the Arabs hate the Israelis and that is one of the basis of why they hate the U.S. Once Saddam is eliminated, the U.S. can pressure Israel to lossen up on the Palestinians, and possibly create a Palestinian state. Half the terrorists originating from the Arab states come from a hatred of Israel and the U.S. due to the Palestinian issue.
You know that Saddam pays the families of Palestinian suicide bombers each $25,000? If he pays them, what else does he do? What makes you think he won't sell nuclear weapons to terrorists to undermind the U.S., it's allies, and Israel?
The non Arab countries that are mainly making the push against the attack on Iraq are France, Russia and a few others. Those are the countries that Saddam's regime owes money to due to old weapons purchases from the 80s. Of course, they'd have financial interest in not allowing any military action against Iraq. If Russia really cared about the Iraqi people, would they have invaded Afgahnistan, or Chechnia? Some of the weapons the U.S. marines found in Iraq were from France.
The U.S. didn't start the war.
War was waged on the U.S. on Sept. 11. If Sept. 11 had never occured, we wouldn't be in Iraq right now. Atleast, this was the wake up call that woke Americans up.
It isn't the fact that Sept. 11 may or may not be related to Saddam. It's the fact that Saddam, if left unchecked, WILL become worse. What will it take? A hand-carried nuke in the middle of New York City before people will realize this guy's a menace to the world?
The civilized world should be thankful in 1981 Israel destroyed the Iraqi Osiraq nuclear facility. Can you even begin to imagine what dangers the world would be in, (not if but) when people like Saddam gets their hands on nuclear weapons and passes them out like a nuclear kmart to terrorists?
In fact, Iraq almost completed a crude nuclear weapon before the first Gulf War, but it was too large to use as a warhead. After the Gulf War, Iraq tried to hide their nuclear equipment from U.N. inspectors as per UNSCOM's findings:
"23-28 Jun 1991 UNSCOM/IAEA inspectors try to intercept Iraqi vehicles carrying nuclear related equipment (Calutrons). Iraqi personnel fire warning shots in the air to prevent the inspectors from approaching the vehicles. The equipment is later seized and destroyed under international supervision."
Calutrons are large electromagnetic devices used to enrich Uranium.
In 1995, U.N. inspectors couldn't even find all the WMDs, until General Hussein Kamel (Saddam's son-in-law) defected to Jordan and informed the world where some were. UNSCOM quickly went to the site, buried the WMD and blew up the plant used to make them. Kamel and his brother was later killed only after a few days of returning to Iraq after Saddam promised to pardon them.
Look on UNSCOM's website at all the lies and deceptions Iraq's been carrying out:
http://www.un.org/Depts/unscom/Chro...nologyframe.htm
Although UNSCOM was successful to some extent, it didn't find all the WMD until Iraqis defected. Both by military generals and Iraqi scientists. Countless times Iraq has blocked, threatened, even taken proof/papers, etc from the inspectors.
Weapons inspectors haven't been in Iraq since 1998. Iraq has refused them in after the Desert Fox compaign. You do the math.
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| Posted by: aivee | |
| quote: |
Originally posted by trustno1atall
Weapons inspectors haven't been in Iraq since 1998. Iraq has refused them in after the Desert Fox compaign. You do the math. |
Yes!!! Since Iraq kicked-out and refused to have the UN inspectors back, it's very clear that he is doing something illegal and he is trying to hide them from the inspectors...
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| Posted by: Grimminick | | trust no one,
saddam has not been dodging UN inspectors for the last ten years. That's what you've been led to believe thanks to inspectors like Richard Butler, a stooge for the US who deliberately set out to provoke the Iraqi regime by going beyond his remit of looking only for WMD. Each time the Iraqis objected, Butler took the inspectors out and bombing started. The news we received was that Saddam was not co-operating. Listen to one of the most feared and respected of weapons inspectors -Scott Ritter who Americans hate because he has a tendency to tell the truth- and you'll find that on the whole the Iraqi regime was compliant. Yes they lied a bit and Ritter found them out. Yes they misled a bit and Ritter found them out. But they did not refuse entry to inspectors except when Butler tried accessing places that had nothing to do with his job. Ritter and his seven years of inspections from 1991 - 1998 are actually considered thorough and effective and explains why today no WMDs have yet to be found during this war. | | Reply To this Message
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| Posted by: aivee | |
| quote: |
Originally posted by Grimminick
[Ritter and his seven years of inspections from 1991 - 1998 are actually considered thorough and effective and explains why today no WMDs have yet to be found during this war. [/B] |
Grimminick, you need to be patient... Just wait and you'll see that Saddam's weapons of mass destruction will soon be found... Our troops haven't searched the whole Iraq yet... Saddam definitely kept them in a hard to find places and hope that nobody would find them... So be patient...
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| Posted by: Grimminick | | Trouble is aivee, I will find it impossible to believe of any find now. Whatever might be suddenly iscovered I will view with the utmost suspicion and doubt. If Saddam had 'em then wy didn't he use them? Why, in the first few days of this war were we treated with lots of images of journalists and military spokespeople talking to camera in gas masks then after that not a gas mask to be seen. No scramble for chemical suits when missiles were launched like they'd done in Kuwait at the drop of the hat. It was like they knew themselves that thechances of Iraq having WMD and using them was looking so unlikely the panic was no longer there. Obviously this is conjecture. I can't pretend I know this, but the whole thing looks darn suspicious. | | Reply To this Message
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| Posted by: Anti-Jihad | | I will have to agree with the article and its supporters. Iraq is not the target, terrorism is & Saddam is.
| quote: |
Originally posted by DrPoke
I was right in a previous post when I said you couldn't read. Where in my post does it say I think Iraq is a wonderful place? - nowhere, you must be dyslexic or something. The reason I don't see things the way you do was written in my post, in N. Ireland the troubles are beginning to be solved by resolving the issues surrounding terrorism, not by dropping more bombs, you are a bigger moron than I initially thought. Also nowhere in my post does it say I am anti-war, it just suggests better ways of solving the terrorist issues. You say I have too much to say, rather that than a small amount of useless insults |
I'm afraid that the conflict in North Ireland is slightly different. I believe they don't have terrorist activists from other countries fighting for their causes. These activists are relatively a small group compared to Arabic extremists that come from the middle east and are spread in the whole world. If they were concentrated in one place I would agree that war is not the solution, but catching all the terrorists and finishing with it once and for all. But unfortunately, these terrorists are spread all over the world, some could hardly be found. While you catch a dozen, another dozen has been trained, while you destroy one of their 'bases'/camps, another has been built.
I AM for a peaceful solution, but if there aren't any and since there MUST be a solution, an ending to terrorism (or to say more accurately - minimizing terrorism activities) I will support any possible and best solution there is, even if it's as harsh as WAR.
If a country's leader supports terrorism, aids terrorists by giving them money and/or weapons and/or responsible in terrorist acts (usually by giving orders) - such a leader should be brought down. And I'm not talking specifically about Saddam, but in general. It would be better if the leader himself could 'bring himself down' but that usually doesn't happen. An inner revolt would be better than a war, but in Saddam's case it didn't happen either. In such case, if there's any alternative to war that could work, please suggest! | | Reply To this Message
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Post-9/11 Era Forum: America, wake up! (a very good article)
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