Amerca's Wake Up Call

[beemerb]

THIS IS A SPEECH WRITTEN BY THE EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE NAVAL AIR STATION IN
PENSACOLA, FLORIDA.
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AMERICA'S WAKE UP CALL!

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, but 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 as 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 and 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 September1984, another van was driven into the gates
of the US Embassy in Beirut and as 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.

Dan Ouimette
Pensacola Civitan, Feb 2003

 

[Baba Louie]

Don't you hate to be reminded how stupid we are?

Or is that loving and forgiving, tolerant of those who don't play well with others. Its not their fault, they are a poor underpriveleged and misunderstood peace loving religion. It must be our fault. We'll try harder next time.

Yeah, right.

Adios

 

[AnklePocket]

I was at a barbeque last night where about half of those there were against the war which included everyone there who lives in Manhattan. I just said that they should ask those who live in Iraq what the real story is over there and then ask Iraqis who fled to the US what's really going on. Then ask the families of those who perished on 9/11 what we should do.
And then the next attack on US soil will make 9/11 look like a boy scout jamboree and it'll be people like you who are to blame. No one got pissed at me and everyone paused to think.
Not sure if I have a point, but, yes, many are just stupid I guess. Maybe they say the same of me.

 

[Baba Louie]

Good point anklepocket and well said.

Come on, no one in their right mind wants a war initially. No one in our country wants to start a war. Not even GW himself, (tho I'm not sure about Cheney and Rumsfield...j/k) as I'm sure he'd rather see the troops come home and Hussein out of office with some newer form of government in place, but that's probably not to be. He's certainly not eager to kill.

You have to do some serious talking to even threaten war. You have to be obsessed to start one. S.H. has started two that come to mind. Al-Q and their ilk have been carrying on a war for some time as beemerb's post by Dan Ouimette so eloquently pointed out. Neither S.H. or Al-Q hesitate to kill.

Relay some of those facts to parties dead set against the war and they say, "so what, its our fault anyway. America is to blame". That's how conditioned they are.

It's only after I ask them if these attacks were on your children, what would you do, that they kinda come around for a second, like you said, they pause and try to think for a minute, then go right back to their original position, stating that this isn't about my children tho', is it?

But at least they actually TRIED to THINK for a second or two until it began to puzzle them and maybe hurt a little. Too much TV and the good life taken for granted. Thinking takes brain-power and I believe that there is not much of that left in our America today.

But then again, not everyone wanted a Revolutionary War against Mother England and King George III a while back, but were certainly eager and content to reap the rewards.

Adios

 

[LostOneToo]

The shame is that it appears that as long as most Americans can content themselves with being couch potatoes, watching their nightly sit-coms and guzzling their brew, they think that all is right with the world and that the government will take care of any problems that might happen along.

They seem to take the attacks against the US and US troops aborad as individual incidents and haven't the intelligence to put them all together and see that "just maybe" something is happening that will explode in their faces someday.

It's said that people get the type of govt they deserve, the problem is that it seems their children will be the ones to get the type of govt that the parents deserved!!!

America used to be a great country!!!~!

 

[Abe]

Alot of good points here. I am constantly amazed at people (sheeple?) who don't understand that we live in The Country Club of The Universe. They think that the good times (down ecomony aside) will just keep rolling along. No matter your economic standing, affluenza is rampant in this country and it surely affects alot of people's ability to think clearly. Hopefully we will heed this wake up call. It certainly looks as though we will.

I certainly don't want war but I understand, and moreover support, the fact that sometimes you have to hit and hit hard in order to get the BG's to leave you alone.

- Abe