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September 11: A nightmare not yet faded


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By John Metzler
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM

Friday, September 10, 2004

NEW YORK Ñ Three years after the treacherous terrorist attack on America that picture perfect September morning, three years after America was assaulted by the forces of white heat hatred, three years after the Pearl Harbor of this generation, the grim shadows of Islamic fanaticism and violence still lurk from New York to Moscow to Jerusalem and so many other places in between.

As former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani told delegates at the recent Republican Convention, ÒIt was here in 2001 in lower Manhattan that President George W. Bush stood amid the fallen towers of the World Trade Center and said to the barbaric terrorists who attacked us: 'They will hear from us.'Ó Indeed, ÒThey have heard from us!Ó

He added, ÒThe horror, the shock and the devastation of those attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and over the skies of Pennsylvania lifted a cloud from our eyes. We stood face to face with those people and forces who hijacked not just airplanes but a religion and turned it into a creed of terrorism dedicated to eradicating us and our way of life.Ó

The U.S. wielded its terrible swift sword in a thoroughly justified counterattack on our enemies from the terrorist bases in Islamic Afghanistan, to toppling SaddamÕs murderous regime in Iraq, while also hitting a wide range of Al Qaida targets. America has since become safer, but not invulnerable.

Responding to the clear and present danger, the USA still actively pursues a strong military offense to keep our enemies off balance.

Naturally there are those who glibly rationalize that the Bush Administration has Òplayed up the terrorist threat for political gain Ó or that somehow toppling of SaddamÕs regime has stoked the fires of global terrorism. Sadly one only has to look at the headlines the past few weeks to see the sanguinary tally; bus bombings against civilians in Israel, two civilian airliners blown up over Russia, a subway station bombed in Moscow, and the school attack in the Russian Caucasian town of Beslan where hundreds of innocent children were massacred. Add a deadly bomb outside the Australian Embassy in Jakarta Indonesia, an Italian journalist murdered in Iraq, and French journalist hostages, to see that the targets are overwhelmingly civilian and Òsoft.Ó

Chechnya and the restive Caucasian region present a case and point. The Islamic separatist struggle against Russia has evolved from a serious localized rebellion to the point where foreign fighters, many of whom were Arabs, were among the jihadis killed by Russian forces following the school siege.

Global terrorism is just that, a global scourge and not something that can either be discussed, debated and appeased with forces who at best despise us and at worse will try to destroy us.

Though terrorist groups such as the Al Qaida network are not formal state entities such as the former Soviet Union, radical regimes often support to terrorist groups. Libya has admitted its past aid to terrorists going back to the 1980Õs. The Islamic Republic of Iran still remains a dangerous and insidious player who has served as a paymaster to all kinds of radicals from Lebanon to Iraq.

Islamic fundamentalism is not only at battle with the Bush Administration but with America, and other Western countries who are seen as infidels or enemies. Yet was it not the USA who played a key role in saving Bosnian Muslims from the scourge of Serbian attacks? Was it not America and NATO that saved the Muslim Kosovar Albanians from being ethnically cleansed by the Christian Serbs a mere five years ago?

Significantly the problem goes well beyond AmericaÕs shores, the violence is not AmericaÕs fault but our challenge. Put bluntly, the Bush team is correct to fight the menace as far from AmericaÕs frontiers as possible rather than waiting for another fateful day when it returns not to Baghdad but to Boston or Baltimore.

For those who forget the true lessons of September 11th or who wish to play the partisan political blame game with American security, or who prefer the sanctimonious parlor game of Bush-bashing rather than defeating our extremist foes, or for those who simply wish to forget, let them hear the mournful bagpipes of the New York City Fire Department and recall that blue September day marred by the fires of hatred, but which kindled the solidarity of all Americans.

John J. Metzler is a U.N. correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues. He writes weekly for World Tribune.com.




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