Terence R. Wilken
RWWNL
The idea that violence is the solution (in the minds of the terrorists) is inherent in the mindset of many cultures, and many people. This mindset must be stopped or changed. The alternative is not acceptable. We can continue to ignore terrorism because it is occurring somewhere else, or we can do something about it. Talk alone will not resolve this problem. Who do we talk to? The solution is to go after the terrorists. They must be stopped. There must be no safe ground for terrorists. They must learn the lessons that I learned 30 years ago in the jungles of Viet Nam. They must learn that there is ìNO SAFE GROUND”.
Israel has been on the receiving end of terrorism from the Palestinians for a long time. Every day we are hearing about another suicide attack on the civilians of Israel. Everyone says that if only Israel will talk with the terrorists, that all will be OK. The Palestinians do not have a homeland. No other Arab or Muslim nation will give up part of their land for them. The Palestinians want the land that Israel has. Israel took part of this land away from them many years ago. They took the land because the Palestinians were terrorizing them. Now if only Israel will give it back, all will be OK again. In order to get their land back, they will use terrorism to achieve their goals. There is no way to convince either side that the other side is right. There is something seriously wrong with this picture.
CNN and others are now able to take their polls. They have found that over 70% of the Arabs and Muslims do not like America or Americans. That is not a bad problem by itself. The only problem that this presents is that there are elements of this population that are willing to die in order to right the wrongs that we have done to them. What have we done you ask? Why, we have spent time on their holy land. We have visited them. We disagree with the way that they treat women. We have tried to convert them to our religion. There are many reasons that they use in order to hate us. There is no end to this feeling, and there are no words that will change this opinion. They are willing to die to get us back for all these wrongs. There is nothing that we can do to change this behavior. Even the mothers of the martyrs want their other children to grow up and die for this cause. Talk will not work. The only thing that will work is to fight back. That means that we have to put our military in harms way.
Israel has learned this lesson. The Arabs have come up with a solution. Give the land back, and we will support a peace process. There are those who think that this will work. I for one do not. These people want all of the land back, not just a part of it. Until they have accomplished this, terrorism will not end. Time is on their side.
They are a growing population, and we in our good deeds mode have allowed many of them to come to our country. We did not track them, and even now when we know who they are, we cannot find them. They are within our country, and can pull off another 911 at some point in the future. This has become a way of life to them. Losing their life to put terror into the minds of their enemy is what they live to do. They cannot be talked out of their commitment.
A Vietnam has been created here in our own country. They have taken away our safety, and provided us with ìno safe ground”. This is not a good feeling for people who have not had to feel this way before. We must now protect everything that we share. We must also look out for our own interests. This has been happening already. People will never again allow hijackers to take over a plane in our country. I know that we will take action even if it means that our own lives are at risk. I can tell you from experience that fatalism is not a way of thought that one wants to live with.
There is one more area that we have to go to. We must be willing to lose life in order to save life. In Vietnam we lost over 50,000 good soldiers. That War may not have been the one to fight, but I can tell you that those who fought in that war were as heroic as those that lost their lives in WWII, Korea, Desert Storm, Somalia, and now Afghanistan. American soldiers are willing to lose their lives in the service of their country, and for the life styles of those who survive them. We do not want to allow this to happen for a cause that is not just, but stopping terrorism is one cause that I think all of us would be willing to die for. Let us hope that it does not take another World Trade Center for us to really decide that this is a War that we must win. Our only other choice is to start living like Israel. Are we willing to accept death in order to allow these people to have the freedoms of their faith? Let us hope not.
The problem that we face is that there is only a small percentage of the population of these groups that we must stop. The question that must be put forth is as follows: Why does the silent majority of these populations not put a stop to this terror? If one stands by and allows others to commit acts of violence, than they become part of the problem. If they need help, than they must ask for it. If they do not, than they become part of the problem, and will end up in harms way.
If people are killed in a one-time incident, I do not consider that terrorism. It may be wrong, but it is not terrorism as we are learning the definition. Terrorism is a constant and long-term battle to get your ideas across with the use of violence. At the end, only lives of both sides are lost.
Do we really want to live this type of life?
