|
 hroughout
our history, the United States has generally been saved from self-destructive
folly by our enemies. We are, after all, the first people in human
history to believe that peace is the normal condition of mankind,
and thus we have never been prepared for our enemies' attack. We
were torpedoed into the First World War on the North Atlantic. We
were providentially bombed into the Second World War in the Pacific.
We were roused from our dreams of peace by Stalin and forced into
the Cold War. And we were dragged, kicking and screaming, into the
Gulf War by Saddam.
All these enemies
of freedom convinced themselves that we were too soft to fight,
too self-indulgent, too comfortable, too isolationist, and too weak
to be able to threaten them. We were seen as ready to be had, and
so they sought to intimidate us, to confront us with a devastating
fait accompli, knowing, even as far back as the second decade of
the twentieth century, that America was their ultimate enemy, and
they had to deal with us, or perish.
The same thing
has happened again, and we should not be dazzled by the scores of
blithering heads with their efforts to cloud what is a very clear
picture. We do not know precisely who did this vile thing, but we
do know why they did it. They did it because their dreams of power
and glory, or of revenge and havoc, cannot be fulfilled so long
as we stand. They are not, as one journalist put it to me a few
minutes ago, "sending a message." They are killing us.
And they are killing us because we are in their way, all over the
world. We are in their way in the Middle East, where we stubbornly
stand with Israel. We are in their way in Africa, where we refuse
to accept their racist attacks against the Jews. We are in their
way in Asia, where we insist on defending the freedom of Taiwan,
and we are in their way in Europe, where we insist that the free
countries of the West be able to defend themselves against missile
attack.
That is why
they hate us, and that is why they are killing us.
While we sort
through the ashes and the debris, and mourn our friends (the wonderful
Barbara Olson died on the airplane that was supposed to take her
to Los Angeles, but instead was hijacked and blasted into the Pentagon),
the first order of business is to show these animals that we are
not intimidated.
Show them,
not tell them.
The Middle
East is the first place to start. Arafat's people were overjoyed
at the news of our dead, so he is no longer acceptable in civilized
society. Never again. Those dancing, jubilant Palestinians were
carrying out the wishes of their leaders, and we don't welcome those
who celebrate mass murder of Americans. Their disgusting revelry
shows, once and for all, that they do not distinguish between us
and the Israelis. They want us all dead. That being the case, we
have to make it clear that no one can drive a wedge between us and
the only free people in the Middle East. And we are not going to
be satisfied with some defensive wall to protect Israel from these
killers. We must take the battle to them, together. If they kill
us together, they will have to fight us together. Again, moving
our embassy to Jerusalem will further demonstrate our resolve.
It does not
seem possible that this well-planned, well-organized assault could
be carried out by a small terrorist group. I cannot imagine that
there is no government behind it. It is implausible to suggest,
as so many have, that a single Sheikh, bin Laden, or whoever, could
have done it all. It reeks of an official intelligence service.
Now that we
have been attacked, our allies will suddenly grasp their own peril.
They have lived in a fool's paradise ever since the fall of Communism,
believing that they could denounce us when it served their domestic
political ambitions, confident that we would defend them against
any and all threats. Now they will fear that we may draw inward,
and leave them to their own devices. I promise you that we are now
receiving information from our allies, information that they kept
to themselves before this morning, information that will help us
identify the criminals who organized the massacre.
And I can also
promise you that we have received offers of assistance, of every
imaginable sort, from allies who in public have long been very sympathetic
to our enemies' cause.
This is different.
This is war against the lone bulwark of the free world, and none
of them can risk our defeat.
They are ready
to join the battle, if we will lead. Will we?
|
