RELEASE THE DINGOS!!!
Israel.....Palestine.....Sharon.....Arafat......
You know, I have been listening to it all for a long time, and have been trying to gain an understanding of just what the Hell is going on over there.
And the more I hear of it all, the more the fog begins to lift, and the more I not-so-silently cheer for Israel to "release the hounds!!!"
For those of you who side one way or the other in this, I hope you will accept this as just something I need to get off of my chest to anyone who will listen.
For those of you who, unfortunately, don't follow the news beyond what you hear on the 'Today' show, and frankly, don't give a damn.....you need to.
There are many in this world & in this country who would have you believe that things are crazy over there in Israel. They would have you believe that the IDF is coming unhinged & is abusing the Palestinians on the ground in Jerusalem, Gaza, etc.
But let me tell you that in my estimation, the Israeli forces are handling this operation in exactly the terms & methods necessary for fighting such a nearly invisible foe.
I have heard both sides of the argument, but the Palestinians have had so many chances for land, for peace, for self-rule, for everything, and Arafat continues to walk away.
After he speaks in English to the West about peace, he goes back & preaches bloodshed to his people in Arabic.
The Palestinians' method of fighting their war is to openly attack civilian targets at every opportunity, while Israel's IDF has been restrained in their military responses, even in the wake of shocking & brutal civilian attacks on a daily basis.
The media continues to report on the hundreds of killed Palestinian civilians in the streets & alleys.
Well, let me tell you, if someone (man, woman, child, old, young, pregnant) takes up arms against a uniformed military force, they have lost their protected status as a civilian.
If a woman willingly places herself in front of fighters as a shield, she has given up her protected status.
Just because the bodies in the streets aren't in a uniform does not mean that they were not active participants in this war.
The reason you will not find weapons on them is because there's always another one around the corner, ready to pick it up & carry on.
Even this afternoon, Israeli troops stopped an apparently pregnant Palestinian woman in the street for questioning & found her "fetus" to be a bulging explosive belt.
And how about Islam as a religion of peace???
HA! Do you know that Hezbollah is storing rockets & other weapons in mosques in Lebanon, Syria & Palestine?
Do you know that radical
Muslims in London have been using a mosque for indoor marksmanship training?
Did you hear that one of Islam's leading clerics invoked more violence against Israel & the US during the prayers at Mecca recently, while preaching to
Muslims from literally around the world? Or how about the Red Crescent ambulances transporting small arms and explosives to the Palestinian fighters strapped underneath their gurneys?!
What is distressing to me is the way President Bush is urging Israel to withdraw from Palestinian territory, while he wages his own war against terror in Afghanistan.
In my opinion, Israel is handling the war on terror exactly the way Mr. Bush preached it to Congress & the American people in the Fall of 2001---they are going house-to-house, crushing terror where they find it.
The Israelis are not dropping bombs from 25,000 feet---they are knocking down doors & rounding up the would-be suicide bombers.
The fact that we are trying to restrain them from defending themselves is nothing less than insanity.
During the first 8 days of Israel's crackdown, there was not a single bombing....within hours of their reported withdrawal, another bus was blown up, killing 8 & wounding dozens.
The only thing terrorists will respond to is violence; a thorough & swift beating.
Don't get me wrong....I do not like the idea of criticizing my own Commander-In-Chief, and I understand that there is a great need to prevent a complete eruption of the Arab world & the Middle East, especially if we are to take on Saddam Hussein....but terror is terror, wherever it may be, and it needs to be squashed as soon as it is identified.
Further, Mr. Bush's appeals for withdrawal only lend legitimacy to the rantings of Khofi
Annan, UN Secretary General, who is also demanding an Israeli withdrawal. I am still sickened when I think about Khofi Annan's Nobel Peace Prize for his handling of the Bosnian War.
Have you ever heard of the Bosnian town of Srebrenica? Where a few hundred UNPROFOR (UN Protection Force) troops were dispatched to protect the "safe-haven" town of Srebrenica for thousands of Bosnian
Muslims. Well, the under-manned & under-armed UNPROFOR blue-hats were overrun by the Serbs, leading to one of the more grisly (if not the worst) mass slaughter of the entire war.
Who else walked away with a Nobel Peace Prize in the 90's? Yassir Arafat.
Now, with the voices of dissent rising around the world, we see increasing anti-Semitism.
Every day in France, Jewish schools & synagogues are vandalized and burned.
Mobs of pro-Palestinian demonstrators gather in the streets and throw rocks at school buses carrying Jewish school children!
In Berkeley, on American soil, synagogues have been vandalized and Orthodox Jews have suffered physical attacks!
Have you seen any of this on the news? Will you? But I'll bet you will keep seeing that same old Israeli Apache, hovering high above the city streets, firing rockets into Palestinian strongholds.
I see that same clip every time I flip the channel.
Clearly, suicide bombings & terrorism are growing examples of a new type of warfare which the US and other world leaders must learn to recognize & develop a doctrine for facing head-on, wherever they are found. Americans, and all Westerners for that matter, must come to grips with the fact that this war will be more than a video game or a long-distance push of a button.
It will be long, it will be dirty, it will be painful, and it will often be uncomfortable to look at.
But that is what it is going to take! That is what it is going to take to ensure that my daughter will have the freedom to ride a bus, to go out dancing with friends, to worship as she chooses...and to pass those freedoms on to her children.
The apologists & Palestinian-sympathizers in their
coffee shops in Berkeley & in Paris only know what they see on their TVs--they see the Israeli Apache helicopters firing rockets, the equipment-laden troops going door-to-door, and bloody Palestinian bodies wrapped in sheets.
What these bed-wetters do NOT see is the moment a suicide bomber pushes the button.
They do not see the body parts of little girls, elderly people, and other innocents being scattered & shredded.
They do not see blood and flesh dripping from ceilings. They do not feel the pain of burst eardrums, fractured ribs & skulls, of lungs punctured by flying bones from other victims; of being literally perforated by flying nuts & bolts & nails.
And for what? Because those people decided to go out for a slice of pizza?
Because they took the bus to work that day? Or, because they accepted a wedding invitation, they should be marked for a
senseless and horrible death?
The events unfolding in Israel are a clear example of the war on terror & just how down & dirty is could get.
While I do not promote sending young men & women off to war needlessly, peaceful people everywhere have a sovereign right and DUTY to protect themselves.
How many times will you allow someone to punch you in the nose before you punch them back?
---SGT MAC