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On Fighting Terrorism:
First a clarification. When I wrote portrait of a desert rat,
I may have inadvertently given the impression that I visualized
huge armies of these evil beings. That is not the case. It takes
a great investment of psychological energy to create a desert
rat. Hence, they are small in number, but each one is more dangerous
that 1000 Afghan regular army troops. In open warfare they are
no more dangerous that any Afghan soldier. They are only more
dangerous when they act as terrorists.
Now to current issues. I am very happy to report that I have found it necessary to rewrite my column for this week. The events of Sunday, October 7 occurred early enough to give me just a bit of time to absorb the news. From the early reports, I find that our President has let the hammer down. He has acted with force against the Taliban and other criminals in Afghanistan including Bin Laden.
I am pleased to note that he has set aside the rather ridiculous notion that we can deal with this threat just by neutralizing Bin Laden. I liken that idea to a particularly virulent form of lunacy. It is as silly, in its way, as believing we could have stopped the Nazis by killing Rommel. Bin Laden is just one officer in the Taliban. In the desert rat nations, he is just one commander. It would be ridiculous on the face of it to make him the primary enemy. There are thousands of Bin Ladens in Afghanistan just waiting to fill his greasy turban. Capturing or killing him would change nothing but the resolve of our enemies.
Please don't choose to misunderstand me. I have no objection to killing that piece of flotsam as a consequence of prosecuting an all out war against the roots of terrorism. However, we will defeat terrorism only when we render the Taliban in all of its forms and disguises powerless. On Sunday, we began that process by striking against the Taliban air defense. Taking command of the Afghanistan air space is the necessary first step. I eagerly await the next step.
To stop the Terrorists, we have to make the cost to them more than they can bear. The only way we can do that is to bring down Afghanistan and the government which spawns and shelters them. The enemy can pretend that there is no country involved, but there is. It is not just a religious fringe group. It is the government of Afghanistan which is behind the terrorism. We are going to have to fight them. In that fight, we seem to have allies, not only around the world, but within Afghanistan itself. So much the better. The more we can isolate these criminals, the weaker they become.
At the same time, we should remember that Taliban is just a name. In Arabic it means "seekers of truth." What a lie that is. We are talking about a pseudo-religious criminal political organization. In Libya, they operate under a different name, but they are the same civilization hating, primitive savages. When we decisively deal with Afghanistan and the Taliban rulers, all other terrorist nations will be on notice. Once they see our resolve they will hesitate to act against us, be it Iraq, Libya, or some other savage nation.
Now as to our own defense, I believe it would be a serious error to let down. Now that we have begun the campaign against these fiends, we must be especially alert. I am sure that the action against the World Trade Center was just a beginning for them. I am convinced that they have many more desert rats in place, ready to strike. Where they will strike is not known. We must remember that the only common element in these acts is the desert rat. The tool they choose is whatever is at hand. The target is whatever they believe will hurt us most.
We must guard all of our major centers of industry and commerce. We must also guard our power grid, food supply, and communication networks. Think of anything in our civilization which we need for full functionality. These must all be guarded. The next few weeks will be crucial.
At the same time, our allies are also at risk. Every capital of every civilized country is at risk. The enemy has a large choice of targets. We must trust our allies to guard against the terrorists within their borders. We can be sure only that there will be attempts. I am also sure that any further acts of violence against us or our allies will not weaken us to any significant degree. Our enemies should be on notice, whatever they do can only strengthen our resolve.
So, let us support our President. Let us support our troops.
Let us support our allies Let us fly our flag proudly. Let us
stand ready to serve.
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