"The US military presence has become part of the problem, not part of the solution."
WHAT?
Anyone who knows me, knows that I have a great deal of tolerance for opposing political views - provided the people who hold them can argue intelligently, and actually have reasons for what they believe beyond the fact that they've been spoonfed by some media source or other. But the one thing I cannot abide, I will never abide, is being anti-troop. And this troop-hating hidden behind a thin veil of policy dispute just makes me even more furious. If you're going to be an idiot, at least do it openly.
Part of the problem? Clean water, running electricity, medical care, food, shoes, clothing, the right to vote, for crying out loud - this is part of the problem? I'll tell you, Senator Kennedy, there are a lot of people in the world who would like those problems. Then again, maybe you're right...the citizens of Iraq were much better off when they could be carted off at any time to be shot, raped....when chemical weapons had about as much chance of raining down on whomever he didn't like at any given point as rain did. They were much better off with a leader who idolized such "problem-solvers" as Hitler and Stalin.
This week marks the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Good timing, Teddy. Funny, but I don't think that the people our troops took out of those places thought that we were "part of the problem."
Senator Kennedy has a long history of shooting his mouth off and knocking the troops. Anyone remember the crack about the torture rooms opening "under new management"? I'm not saying that what happened at Abu Ghraib was ok. It wasn't. But the military disciplined those involved. They didn't say, "Way to go, Soldier!" And comparing what happened there to what Saddam did to his own people is ridiculous. Have you seen pictures of the folks in the areas where he used chemical weapons? I have. Have you read the stories of the rape rooms, and all of the other warped things he and his twisted little sons did? I have.
How dare you, Senator? How dare you say that the brave men and women defending your right to shoot your mouth off are part of the problem? The problem, Senator, is a group of fanatical, demented religious zealots who fear freedom because it takes away their power, who fear democracy because it takes away their control, and who hate us because we won't back down.
Everyone seems to think that terrorism started after we went into Iraq. It sounds like Senator Kennedy and his friends need a history lesson. Bear in mind that the incidents below are only those where Americans were killed and injured, and a couple of other historical landmarks. Not included are many, many others (like the Munich Olympics attack, the shooting of the Pope, the Japanese Sarin attack...).
1970
June - PLO agents murder U.S. Embassy attaché Army Major Robert P. Perry in Jordan.
1971
March - Weather Underground bombs a U.S. Senate office building.
1972
May - The Red Army Faction kills one Army officer and injures 12 servicemen in a series of bombings. Their leaders are captured and jailed
1973
March - Black September terrorists take 10 hostages at the Saudi embassy in Khartoum, Sudan, murder the U.S. ambassador, U.S. charge d'affaires, and a Belgian diplomat before surrendering.
1974
February - Symbionese Liberation Army kidnaps Patti Hearst.
April
3 U.S. Navy personnel are murdered near Subic Bay Naval Base by the guerrilla arm of the Communist Party of the Philippines.
1975
January - FALN, a Puerto Rican terrorist group kills four and wounds 60 with a bomb placed at Fraunces Tavern in New York City.
January - A Weather Underground detonates bomb goes off at the U.S. State Department building.
August - Japanese Red Army terrorists wound four people and take 53 men, women, and children hostage, including the American consul, in the American consulate in Malaysia. The Japanese release the prisoners demanded, and Libya takes the terrorists.
1976
June - PFLP and Red Army faction terrorists hijack an Air France flight, taking 240 hostages. They fly to Libya to refuel, then head for Uganda, where Idi Amin rolls out the welcome mat. They demand the release of 50+ of their friends, $5 million, and release everyone who isn't an Israeli. The Israelis decide to end this, and commandos raid the airplane, killing the terrorists. Two hostages die after being caught in the crossfire; the rest are freed. This raid is hailed as a benchmark in the battle against terrorists.
1977
March - In Washington DC, Hanafi Muslim terrorists seize a building just about within spitting distance of the White House. 134 hostages taken. They kill one and wound twelve.. After negotiating with Egypt, Pakistan, and Iran, they surrender.
May - The U.S. Cultural Center in Madrid, where VP Mondale is due to arrive, is bombed by a group of terrorists whose name translates to the October 1 Anti-Fascist Group.
1979
February - U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan is kidnapped in Kabul. U.S. officials try to convince the Afghan interior ministry not to storm the room, but a gunshot is heard, which leads to a hail of bullets. The ambassador is killed.
June - Serbian terrorists hijack a New York to Chicago flight (American Airlines), trying to get a full-time priest (and Chicago Yugoslavian consulate bomber on the side) released. It doesn't work out for them, and they are arrested.
1979
November - The US allows Iran's Shah to come over for medical treatment; 500 Iranians storm the American embassy and hold 52 people hostage for 444 days because economic pressures and one rescue attempt fail to work. After Ronald Reagan is elected, negotiations are started that work. The hostages are released in late January, 1981.
December - Two U.S. Navy sailors on a bus in Puerto Rico by terrorists.
1980
July - Khomeini fan David Belfield changes his name to Daoud Salahuddin and kills the former Shah's press aide at his home.
October - two Turkish holdings in the US are bombed by Armenian terrorists, injuring one person.
1981
March - Columbian terrorists kidnap and kill American Chester Allen Bitterman, who refused to close the Latin American Branch of Wycliffe Bible Translators when they asked him to.
August - The US Air Force base in Ramstein, Germany is carbombed by the Red Army Faction. 18 Americans and 2 Germans are injured.
September - The Red Army Faction, on a roll, tries to murder the commander of U.S. forces in Europe. General Kruesen and his wife sustain minor injuries when two RPGs are fired at their car.
October - Egyptian President Anwar Sadat is murdered during a parade. Eight others are killed, and 20 are injured. The injured include American diplomats.
December - US Army Brigadeer General J. L. Dozier is kidnapped from his home in Italy. A month and a half later, he is freed in a raid by Italian agents.
1982
January
U.S. military attaché Lt. Colonel Charles R. Ray outside near his Paris home by Lebanese Marxists.
June - Four US military installations in Germany are bombed by the Revolutionary Cells, a West German group.
July - the acting Presdient of the American University of Beirut is kidmapped, moved from Lebanon to Iran, and released a year later. Syrian leader Hafez Assad helps in negotiations by saying that the pres contributed to middle east culture.
August - One technician dies and two are injured trying to disarm a carbomb in France. The car belonged to an American embassy worker, and Lebanese Marxists claim the credit.
1983
April - 2000 pounds of explosives are driven into the US Embassy in Beirut. 17 Americans killed, 46 others dead, and 120 injured. Islamic Jihad claims responsibility.
September - Puerto Rican terrorists pull off one of the largest bank robberies in US history, clearing about $7.2 mil from Wells Fargo's West Hartford terminal.
October - A truck filled with explosives enhanced with compressed gas goes through the fences and entanglements outside the US Marine barracks in Beirut. Marines open fire as the truck comes through, but it crashes into the building, detonates, and kills 241 sleeping servicement.
56 French servicement are killed in a similar, almost simultaneous attack on their barracks.
November - The Armed Resistance Unit detonates a bomb at the US Capitol, in what it says is a protest of Grenada and our involvement in Beirut.
December - Truckloads of explosives get driven into the American and French embassies in Kuwait. The driver goofs at the American embassy, and misses his target. Five dead there; no Americans. Down the road at the French embassy, a big hole in the building, but no one is killed. A radical, Iran-friendly Shiite group is blamed.
December - 4 simultaneous bombings by Puerto Rican terrorists in NYC on Federal and City government buildings. A number of city officers are seriously wounded. The terrorists are pardoned by President Clinton in 1999, during Hilary's Senate race.
1984
January - Islamic Jihand gunmen kill the President of the American University of Beirut.
June - TWA flight 847 is hijacked on an Athens-to-Rome flight. It is forced to fly to Beirut, where more terrorists join the fray. US Navy diver Robert Stetham is murdered, and his body tossed out on the tarmack. The hostages are released 17 days later.
1985
August - The Red Army Faction carbombs a US Air Force base in West Germany, using the I.D. of an off-duty serviceman they murdered the night before. 2 killed, 17 injured.
October - Palestinian terrorists hijack the Achille Lauro, murdering a 69-year-old disabled American tourist, Leon Klinghoffer. They toss his body overboard in his wheelchair. Two days later they surrender, in exchange for a safe flight out of there. US Navy F-14s intercept the Egyptian jet attempting to do so, and force it to land in Sicily, where the terrorists are taken in.
November - A carbomb explodes outside a US military post exchange in Frankfurt, Germany. 35 people (largely Americans) are injured.
1986
April
A TWA jet in Greece is bombed. The timing device on the bomb was activated when a passenger sat on the seat it was under. Four dead, but the plane lands safely.
April
The LaBelle Disco in West Berlin is bombed. Two American soldiers die, and dozens of servicemen are injured. Another person is killed. Almost two hundred other people are injured. President Reagan orders air strikes against Libya for its involvement in the bombing.
1987
April - 16 US Servicemen are injured in Greece by Revolutionary Organization 17 November (Marxist-Leninist) when it bombs a bus.
August - 17 November attacks another bus, injuring 10 servicemen.
October - The New People's Army kills four Americans near Clark Air Base.
December - Spanish terrorists throw grenades into a USO bar in Barcelona. One US serviceman killed, nine wounded.
1988
April - A Japanese Red Army suicide bomber drives his car into a USO club in Naples, Italy. A US Navy enlisted woman and four others are killed. Another Red Army terrorist is arrested in April with bombs and explosives, at a New Jersey rest area. Both attacks are timed for the second anniversary of the US airstrikes in Libya.
June - 17 November murders Cpt. William Nordeen, a US defense attaché at the U.S. embassy in Athens, Greece.
August - The "Simon Bolivar Commandos" detonate a carbomb near the motorcade carrying the US Secretary of State in LaPaz, Bolivia. No one is injured.
December - Pan Am Flight 103 explodes over Lockerbie, Scotland. 259 people are killed on the plane (189 are American - one of those from my hometown), and 11 die on the ground. One bomber is finally convicted in 2001, the other returns a hero after he's acquitted.
1989
February - Bookstores carrying Salman Rushdie's "The Satanic Verses" are bombed in California after a fatwa is issued calling for his death.
March - In an attack believed to be retaliation for the USS Vincennes' downing of an Iranian civilian airliner, terrorists place a bomb in the van of the Captain's wife. She is not injured.
1990
March - the Fort Myers DEA offices are firebombed by Columbian terrorists. Two months later, the FBI catches Columbian terrorists trying to buy Stinger missiles.
September - Phillipino President Corazon Aquino's Captain of the guard is killed, along with two American Ford Aerospace employees. The attacks occur at about the same time as VP Quayle's visit.
1991
December - No more USSR, and a lot of the Communist terrorist groups go the way of the Dodo shortly thereafter.
1993
January - Two CIA employees are murdered, and three wounded, near the Langley facility gate, by a Pakistani terrorist.
February - The World Trade center is bombed Arab terrorists. Six are killed, 1,000 injured, and the blast causes $300 million in damage. They claim to be retaliating for US support of Israel.
The damage is fixed, and the place reopened, in under a month.
1995
March - A CIA employee and an employee of the US consulate are shot and killed in Karachi, Pakistan
April - A truck bomb outside the Murrah Federal building in Oklahoma City detonates, killing 168 people. 19 of those are children. 1 person dies in the rescue effort. 220 buildings are damaged. Timothy McVeigh is executed for the crime in 2001. Terry Nichols is also convicted.
September - During rush hour, a terrorist fires an RPG into the US embassy in Moscow in retaliation for air strikes in Bosnia. The embassy loses a copier, but no one is injured.
1996
June - In Saudi Arabia, suicide bombers drive a tanker filled with explosives into a housing facility for US and allied forces enforcing the Iraqi no-fly zone. 19 Americans die, and almost 500 are wounded. 13 Hezbollah members are indicted for the crime in 2001.
1997
November - In Pakistan, four American Union Texas Petroleum Auditors are murdered in retaliation for the conviction of a Pakistani terrorist on the CIA murders.
1998
July - In Nairobi, Tanzania, and Kenya, over 300 people are killed in simultaneous bombings of US embassies. Over 5,000 are injured, and Osama bin Laden is the prime suspect. In August, President Clinton authorizes cruise missile strikes on targets in Sudan and Afghanistan
1999
December - An Algerian terrorist is arrested at the US-Canadian border with more than 100 pounds of explosives. The explosives were bound for a millenium bombing in Los Angeles.
The terrorist reports being trained by Al Qaeda.
2000
October - suicide bombers blast a 40' x 40' hole in the American destroyer USS Cole, killing 17 and wounding 39. Again, Al Qaeda is the top suspect.
September 11, 2001 - Thousands are killed in attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and in a failed attempt to strike a target in Washington. President George W. Bush begins bombing Afghanistan 4 weeks later.
Add to that the bombings in Spain and France, the numerous plots foiled by the CIA, FBI, and the military... and you see that terrorism has a long history. And it's about time someone did something about it. Terrorism, Senator, is the problem. Taking a stand is the solution. Another problem, at least in this country, is blind, troop-hating politicians that don't have the backbone to do what is necessary. Our nation's heroes are NOT part of the problem. You, sir, may be. Shame on you, and shame on every other politician from your party who hasn't got the intestinal fortitude to tell you you've crossed the line.
To see the incidents I didn't include here, visit http://www.jillnicholson.com/appetite.htm
Labels: Moonbats, My Two Cents, opinion, politics
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