U.S. Navy Capt. Ouimette is the XO of NAS, Pensacola.  Here is a copy of the speech he gave earlier this month.   A wonderful and accurate account of why we are in trouble today.
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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 down sized / right sized since the end of the Vietnam 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 kidnaped 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."

Thank you very much.

Son, sometimes, we are so "forgetful!"  We have invaded nearly 180 countries in our history, a record. And, we have been subject of terrorism long long long before 1979! Somehow, anything to do with Middle East, gets out of proportion publicity.  Start with the four puerto ricans in 1950.

The maximum number of terrorist incidents directed against us, over the past 30 years, comes from Latin America.  As we speak, there are either four American Executives, or Intelligent Officers [can't remember], being held hostage at Guatemala for example.  Where is the outcry?

The reason we go to war,is not connected to containing terrorism.  Here are some numbers that I hope it would help you:

This is mainly for U.S. population.

Chances of dying from
Heart attack, 1 in 300
Cancer, 1 in 509
Gunshot Wound, 1 in 9,450
Car Accident, 1 in 18,800
Aids, 1 in 19,400
Bicyle Accident, 1 in 341,000
Airline Accident, 1 in 8,450,000

Terrorist Attack, 1 in 9,270,000 (about the same as dying from a dog attack)

The above is from Condenest Feb 2003.

Our defense budget is 12 times that of United Kingdom.  When you have a big screw driver, all problems look like a screw to you. The war in Iraq is nearly over,  we invaded Afghanistan a while back, now let's see if we have fixed the problem. If indeed that was the case, well done, good strategy.  If not, let's put our tax dollars somewhere that saves more lives, like heart related research.  Would you agree?

We really don't have to theorize, second guess, and forecast.  Actions, right or wrong, have been taken.  Let's see what comes next, without assaulting left, right, or center.

very good summary. However I fail to see how toppling Saddam Hussein's ugly regime is fighting terrorism. We have not seen a shed of a proof of that. Attacking Afghanistan, yes, and I was all in favor of that. Bin Laden was there. But Iraq?

Osama Ben Laden is not an Iraqi. He is not even an Afghan. You'd think he was, since we invaded both those countries.

Ben Laden was born a Saudi and continues to be one. So why not go to war with Saudi Arabia? Three guesses, and the first two don't count.

We've invaded 180 countries? Do you have a list?

You list quite a few terrorist attacks, but not one of them can be attributed to Saddam Hussein or Iraq.  Why are we attacking a 2 bit dictator whose military is so degraded that even the weakest of his neighbors no longer fear him instead of going after the real problems?

YF, thank you for correcting my error.  It is actually not 180 "countries", rather 180 times we have invaded other countries.  The bulk of them were in Latin America.  For example we have invaded Ncaragua about 3 times.

I will try to find the list for you.

If you share the author's assumptions, you will also share the author's conclusions, because they are one and the same. But I don't see anything in there to convince me of the author's conclusions, because I don't share his assumptions, and he hasn't proven the veracity of either. Or even tried.

Unfortunately, this has been my experience with all right-ish so-called "argument": it's without argument. The evidence-to-conclusion link is abandoned. The very NOTION of linking things is abandoned. I can't say that right-wing arguments don't convince me, because, frankly, I've never SEEN a right-wing argument -- only right-wing diatribes. I also can't say the author is necessarily wrong ... he hasn't proven or disproven himself. He's addressed nothing except his own anger and fear. He's just harangued. Epideictic call to arms suffices for those who don't need reasoning; reasoning is necessary for convincing me, and as of yet, he hasn't provided any.

Unfortunately. Cuz I really don't like the left much either, with all that free stuff they keep giving away. I'm a fiscal conservative, and a Libertarian as far as bedroom politics goes (get Congress the heck out of it!), and might even be a right-winger about certain things. If the right wing would play ball.

So, here's a suggestion. Right-wingers, if you want me to agree with you, don't go all het-up on emotion. Talk about premises, and logic, and why X leads to Y, and where the relationship between the two lies, and what some weaknesses and the major strengths in your points may be, and try to structure it all with topic-sentences leading to an overall thesis, and basically, treat me like I'm intelligent.

The reason I vote left most of the time, is because they tend to do me that favor, and the right doesn't. Heck, I often vote left even when I DISagree with them, simply because I can see what their reasoning is. Sometimes the left is correct, sometimes they're not, but at least they try to talk sense. I honestly don't know whether the right is correct or not ... and they don't seem to want me to know, either.

And THAT scares me a HELLUVA lot more than Saddam Hussein ever did.

So here's a question. What ON EARTH does conquering Iraq have to do with making me safer tomorrow than I was yesterday? Seems to me to be tailor-made for antagonizing Middle Easterners of a certain political bent, ruining our relations with 'em, throwing fuel on the fire, CAUSING rather than preventing terrorism, generally ruining my life. Why is George W. Bush going out of his way to endanger the vast majority of American citizens more than they have ever been endangered before? Or is that not the case?



-- Modified on 4/12/2003 9:22:33 PM

Your author should go back a bit farther in his history.  The 1979 revolution was to depose the Shah, who we reinstalled in the 1950s.  It was our support for the Shah that really pissed off the fundimentalists.

Every time we f*ck with the middle east, we get massive blowback.  Perhaps we should stop f*cking with them?

-- Modified on 4/12/2003 7:05:20 PM

more interested in harangues than discussions.

California is a left wing experiment...  social and fiscal failure abound.  Yeah lets follow them.