| Open Letters to Terrorists |
| These are very powerful words. I couldn't have said it better....... by Leonard Pitts Jr. of the Miami Herald We'll go forward from this moment It's my job to have something to say. They pay me to provide words that help make sense of that which troubles the American soul. But in this moment of airless shock when hot tears sting disbelieving eyes, the only thing I can find to say, the only words that seem to fit, must be addressed to the unknown author of this suffering. You monster. You beast. You unspeakable bastard. What lesson did you hope to teach us by your coward's attack on our World Trade Center, our Pentagon, us? What was it you hoped we would learn? Whatever it was, please know that you failed. Did you want us to respect your cause? You just damned your cause. Did you want to make us fear? You just steeled our resolve. Did you want to tear us apart? You just brought us together. Let me tell you about my people. We are a vast and quarrelsome family, a family rent by racial, social, political and class division, but a family nonetheless. We're frivolous, yes, capable of expending tremendous emotional energy on pop cultural minutiae -- a singer's revealing dress, a ball team's misfortune, a cartoon mouse. We're wealthy, too, spoiled by the ready availability of trinkets and material goods, and maybe because of that, we walk through life with a certain sense of blithe entitlement. We are fundamentally decent, though -- peace-loving and compassionate. We struggle to know the right thing and to do it. And we are, the overwhelming majority of us, people of faith, believers in a just and loving God. Some people -- you, perhaps -- think that any or all of this makes us weak. You're mistaken. We are not weak. Indeed, we are strong in ways that cannot be measured by arsenals. IN PAIN Yes, we're in pain now. We are in mourning and we are in shock. We're still grappling with the unreality of the awful thing you did, still working to make ourselves understand that this isn't a special effect from some Hollywood blockbuster, isn't the plot development from a Tom Clancy novel. Both in terms of the awful scope of their ambition and the probable final death toll, your attacks are likely to go down as the worst acts of terrorism in the history of the United States and, probably, the history of the world. You've bloodied us as we have never been bloodied before. But there's a gulf of difference between making us bloody and making us fall. This is the lesson Japan was taught to its bitter sorrow the last time anyone hit us this hard, the last time anyone brought us such abrupt and monumental pain. When roused, we are righteous in our outrage, terrible in our force. When provoked by this level of barbarism, we will bear any suffering, pay any cost, go to any length, in the pursuit of justice. I tell you this without fear of contradiction. I know my people, as you, I think, do not. What I know reassures me. It also causes me to tremble with dread of the future. In the days to come, there will be recrimination and accusation, fingers pointing to determine whose failure allowed this to happen and what can be done to prevent it from happening again. There will be heightened security, misguided talk of revoking basic freedoms. We'll go forward from this moment sobered, chastened, sad. But determined, too. Unimaginably determined. THE STEEL IN US You see, the steel in us is not always readily apparent. That aspect of our character is seldom understood by people who don't know us well. On this day, the family's bickering is put on hold. As Americans we will weep, as Americans we will mourn, and as Americans, we will rise in defense of all that we cherish. So I ask again: What was it you hoped to teach us? It occurs to me that maybe you just wanted us to know the depths of your hatred. If that's the case, consider the message received. And take this message in exchange: You don't know my people. You don't know what we're capable of. You don't know what you just started. But you're about to learn. Thank you TKO for sending this to me. |
| Written by: Charles Brennan Date: 9/11/2001 9:07p.m. An open letter to a terrorist: Well, you hit the World Trade Center, but you missed America. You hit the Pentagon, but you missed America. You used helpless American bodies, to take out other American bodies, but like a poor marksman, you STILL missed America. Why? Because of something you guys will never understand. America isn't about a building or two, not about financial centers, not about military centers, America isn't about a place, America isn't even about a bunch of bodies. America is about an IDEA. An idea, that you can go someplace where you can earn as much as you can figure out how to, live for the most part, like you envisioned living, and pursue Happiness. (No guarantees that you'll reach it, but you can sure try!) Go ahead and whine your terrorist whine, and chant your terrorist litany: "If you can not see my point, then feel my pain." This concept is alien to Americans. We live in a country where we don't have to see your point. But you're free to have one. We don't have to listen to your speech. But you're free to say one. Don't know where you got the strange idea that everyone has to agree with you. We don't agree with each other in this country, almost as a matter of pride. We're a collection of guys that don't agree, called States. We united our individual states to protect ourselves from tyranny in the world. Another idea, we made up on the spot. You CAN make it up as you go, when it's your country. If you're free enough. Yeah, we're fat, sloppy, easy-going goofs most of the time. That's an unfortunate image to project to the world, but it comes of feeling free and easy about the world you live in. It's unfortunate too, because people start to forget that when you attack Americans, they tend to fight like a cornered badger. The first we knew of the War of 1812, was when England burned Washington D.C. to the ground. Didn't turn out like England thought it was going to, and it's not going to turn out like you think, either. Sorry, but you're not the first bully on our shores, just the most recent. No Marquis of Queensbury rules for Americans, either. We were the FIRST and so far, only country in the world to use nuclear weapons in anger. Horrific idea, nowadays? News for you bucko, it was back then too, but we used it anyway. Only had two of them in the whole world and we used 'em both. Grandpa Jones worked on the Manhattan Project. Told me once, that right up until they threw the switch, the physicists were still arguing over whether the Uranium alone would fission, or whether it would start a fissioning chain reaction that would eat everything. But they threw the switch anyway, because we had a War to win. Does that tell you something about American Resolve? So who just declared War on us? It would be nice to point to some real estate, like the good old days. Unfortunately, we're probably at war with random camps, in far-flung places. Who think they're safe. Just like the Barbary Pirates did, IIRC. Better start sleeping with one eye open. There's a spirit that tends to take over people who come to this country, looking for opportunity, looking for liberty, looking for freedom. Even if they misuse it. The Marielistas that Castro emptied out of his prisons, were overjoyed to find out how much freedom there was. First thing they did when they hit our shores, was run out and buy guns. The ones that didn't end up dead, ended up in prisons. It was a big PITA then (especially in south Florida), but you're only the newest PITA, not the first. You guys seem to be incapable of understanding that we don't live in America, America lives in US! American Spirit is what it's called. And killing a few thousand of us, or a few million of us, won't change it. Most of the time, it's a pretty happy-go-lucky kind of Spirit. Until we're crossed in a cowardly manner, then it becomes an entirely different kind of Spirit. Wait until you see what we do with that Spirit, this time. Sleep tight, if you can. We're coming...... (Signed)Charles Brennan |
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| Just a few personal thoughts of my own to OBL...if you so believe in the "fight" that you've begun, why is it that you have never actually fought for it? Why is it that the only photos taken are of you carrying or inspecting a weapon yet never actually using said weapon? Why is it that you have followers going out on suicide missions, yet you stay safely hidden in some faraway hole? How can you justify what you are doing to the Islamic religion and it's followers? Do you really believe that you can overcome the basic freedoms that God has bestowed upon the world? Better fools than you have tried in the past and look what they received for their aspirations to greed and world domination. Do you truly believe that you and your Taliban puppets will fair any better? I think not. |
| By Sayed Salahuddin and Alan Elsner KABUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - �Angry Muslims took to the streets after the first Friday prayers since President Bush launched military action against Afghanistan's ruling Taliban.� �Bush, speaking one month after suicide squads killed more than 5,000 Americans and other nationals by slamming hijacked airliners into landmarks in the United States, said the Taliban could still stop the military offensive. �You still have a second chance. Just bring him (bin Laden) in and bring his leaders and lieutenants and other thugs and criminals with him,� he told a Thursday news conference. �If you cough him up and his people today we'll reconsider what we're doing to your country.� Bin Laden and the Taliban, who have been sheltering him since the mid-1990s, say Bush has launched a crusade against Islam and have urged Muslims round the world to rally to their defense.� � �Certain information, while not specific as to target, gives the government reason to believe that there may be additional terrorist attacks within the United States and against U.S. interests overseas over the next several days,� the FBI said.� ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Up until now, I have tried not to editorialize this site too terribly much, as it was intended to be a place for us to express our grief, and show our love and support for the victims, their families...for the world. However, the things that I have seen and read the last few days have somewhat altered my intentions. It absolutely astounds me how Islamic people can justify their protests of the actions being taken against terrorism. Bin Laden and his evil followers declared war on Sept. 11, 2001 when, in the space of about an hour, approximately 3,000 innocent people were needlessly and horrifically annihilated. This act of war was perpetrated on not just the American people and their government, but on the free world in general. While it is extremely unfortunate that innocent Afghanistan people are being wounded or killed, what other course is there but to combat Bin Laden, his followers, and the Taliban with the only methods they seem to comprehend? Some Islamic people protest the loss of a handful of people, yet they say nothing of the lives lost Sept. 11, 2001. There were not only Americans slaughtered that day, but many people from many other nations, as well. Do these lives, these people who were doing nothing more than carrying out their daily lives, have less value than the Afghanistan people now suffering because the Taliban refuses to do the one thing that will prevent further action? Bin Laden and his band of cohorts have perverted the Islamic religion to suit their own sick and greedy desires, yet many Muslims would have the world believe that the Americans are terrorizing them. About 3,000 lives needlessly slaughtered in an hour�s time vs. approximately 300 lives lost in a six day span of time. Now, I would like some of the Islamic protestors to explain to me how they can justify whatever it is that they are thinking. The bombings in Afghanistan were, and still are, avoidable. All that is required is the surrendering of Bin Laden and his evildoers. It�s quite simple really, but it is apparently a concept that is beyond the abilities of the Taliban. That, in itself, should tell any protestors of the current actions being undertaken that the Taliban cares nothing, less than nothing, about the people of Afghanistan, or about the true Islamic religion. The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 were a site more than the bloody nose being given to the Taliban right now. If protestors of the current fight for freedom are so dense as to not be able to see what Bin Laden and his thugs, including the Taliban, have planned for the future, then they should all gather in Afghanistan and show their support from there instead of hiding out safe and protected in their own countries. In case you haven�t noticed, WE were the ones that were wrongfully attacked. About 3,000 innocent lives lost, yet WE are in the wrong?? No, I don�t think so. Regardless of what Bin Laden and his Taliban puppets would have you believe this has NOTHING to do with religion. It is all about power, corruption, greed, and the most perverted, and base, desire for world domination. |
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