Got a good Email I thought I would share.

[Boedy]

U.S. Navy Capt Ouimette is the XO of NAS, Pensacola. Here is a copy of
the speech he gave earlier this month. A wonderful and accurate account of
why we are in trouble today.
+++++++++++++++

America WAKE UP!

That's what we think we heard on the 11th of September 2001 and maybe it
was, but I think it should have been "Get Out of Bed!" In fact, I think the
alarm clock has been buzzing since 1979 and we have continued to hit the
snooze button and roll over for a few more minutes of peaceful sleep since
then.

It was a cool fall day in November 1979 in a country going through a
religious and political upheaval when a group of Iranian students attacked
and seized the American Embassy in Tehran. This seizure was an outright
attack on American soil; it was an attack that held the world's most
powerful country hostage and paralyzed a Presidency. The attack on this
sovereign US embassy set the stage for the events to follow for the next 23 years.

America was still reeling from the aftermath of the Viet Nam experience and
had a serious threat from the Soviet Union when then, President Carter, had
to do something. He chose to conduct a clandestine raid in the desert.
The ill-fated mission ended in ruin, but stood as a symbol of America's
inability to deal with terrorism. America's military had been decimated and
downsized / right sized since the end of the Viet Nam war. A poorly trained,
poorly equipped and poorly organized military was called on to execute a
complex mission that was doomed from the start.

Shortly after the Tehran experience, Americans began to be kidnaped and
killed throughout the Middle East. America could do little to protect her
citizens living and working abroad. The attacks against US soil continued.

In April of 1983 a large vehicle packed with high explosives was driven into
the US Embassy compound in Beirut. When it explodes, it kills 63 people.
The alarm went off again and America hit the Snooze Button once more.
Then just six short months later a large truck heavily laden down with over
2500 pounds of TNT smashed through the main gate of the US Marine Corps
headquarters in Beirut. 241 US servicemen are killed. America mourns her
dead and hit the Snooze Button once more. Two months later in December
1983, another truck loaded with explosives is driven into the US Embassy in
Kuwait, and America continues her slumber. The following year, in September
1984, another van was driven into the gates of the US Embassy in Beirut and
America slept.

Soon the terrorism spreads to Europe. In April 1985 a bomb explodes in a
restaurant frequented by US soldiers in Madrid. Then in August a Volkswagen
loaded with explosives is driven into the main gate of the US Air Force Base
at Rhein-Main, 22 are killed and the Snooze Alarm is buzzing louder and
louder as US soil is continually attacked. Fifty-nine days later a cruise
ship, the Achille Lauro is hijacked and we watched as an American in a
wheelchair is singled out of the passenger list and executed. The
terrorists then shift their tactics to bombing civilian airliners when they
bomb TWA Flight 840 in April of 1986 that killed 4 and the most tragic bombing,
Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, killing 259. America wants
to treat these terrorist acts as crimes; in fact we are still trying to bring
these people to trial. These are acts of war...the Wake Up alarm is louder
and louder.

The terrorists decide to bring the fight to America. In January 1993,
Two CIA agents are shot and killed as they enter CIA headquarters in
Langley, Virginia. The following month, February 1993, a group of terrorists are
arrested after a rented van packed with explosives is driven into the
underground parking garage of the World Trade Center in New York City.
Six people are killed and over 1000 are injured. Still this is a crime and not
an act of war? The Snooze alarm is depressed again.
Then in November 1995 a car bomb explodes at a US military complex in
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia killing seven service men and women. A few months later
in June of 1996, another truck bomb explodes only 35 yards from the US military
compound in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. It destroys the Khobar Towers, a US Air
Force barracks, killing 19 and injuring over 500.

The terrorists are getting braver and smarter as they see that America does
not respond decisively. They move to coordinate their attacks in a simultaneous
attack on two US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. These attacks were
planned with precision, they kill 224. America responds with cruise missile attacks
and goes back to sleep.

The USS Cole was docked in the port of Aden, Yemen for refueling on 12
October 2000, when a small craft pulled along side the ship and exploded
killing 17 US Navy Sailors. Attacking a US War Ship is an act of war, but
we sent the FBI to investigate the crime and went back to sleep.

And of course you know the events of 11 September 2001. Most Americans
think this was the first attack against US soil or in America. How wrong they
are. America has been under a constant attack since 1979 and we chose to
hit the snooze alarm and roll over and go back to sleep.

In the news lately we have seen lots of finger pointing from every high
official in government over what they knew and what they didn't know.
But if you've read the papers and paid a little attention I think you can
see exactly what they knew. You don't have to be in the FBI or CIA or on
the National Security Council to see the pattern that has been developing
since 1979. The President is right on when he says we are engaged in a war.
I think we have been in a war for the past 23 years and it will continue until
we as a people decide enough is enough.

America has to "Get out of Bed" and act decisively now. America has changed
forever. We have to be ready to pay the price and make the sacrifice to ensure
our way of life continues. We cannot afford to hit the Snooze Button
again and roll over and go back to sleep. We have to make the terrorists
know that in the words of Admiral Yamamoto after the attack on Pearl
Harbor "that all they have done is to awaken a sleeping giant."

Thank you very much.

Dan Ouimette
Pensacola Civitan
19 Feb 2003

[Degner]

[1pump]

Kind of odd that he doesn't mention the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995 among the other "acts of war".
Terrorist attacks by domestic right-wing extremists don't count?

[montster303]

1pump....i believe that we are prosecuting the "homegrown" terrorists as best we can....and these are INDIVIDUAL acts committed, not a collective group.


glad you liked it, Boedy

[skein]

[img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img]

Skein

[Vandal]

[img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img]

---vandal

[Silver Hilton]

Originally posted by montster303:
1pump....i believe that we are prosecuting the "homegrown" terrorists as best we can....and these are INDIVIDUAL acts committed, not a collective group.

<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helvetica">I think I could make an argument that you are incorrect on both counts. Recent reports strongly indicate that McViegh was operating as part of a group which he took the fall for. The terrorist attacks that have taken place over the last 25 years have come from many different sources.

The letter's author does a great job of arousing emotion, but doesn't seem to grasp that problem of fighting loosely or non-affiliated groups with an axe to grind. There isn't a nice little excel spreadsheet with their names and addresses, so that we can go fight this 'war' as he would like to call it.

As Shakespeare would have said, "it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing ."

We have suffered, and will continue to suffer, attacks by militants. Every dominant nation in history has suffered these attacks. The number of atacks will be proportionate to the level of our dominance, and the bitterness that the dominance arouses, due to the circumstances of the militant population. The Bush government's hamhanded approach to diplomacy, with it's apparent goal of alienting every single country in the world, could not be better designed to increase the number and frequency of these attacks.

I'm not saying that if we changed presidents back to Clinton that this would change. My point is, that we should get our heads in a space like the Isrealis, and realise that this is simply a problem that we will have to endure and manage. Unless and until we back off from our support of the corrupt regimes in the muslim world, the militants will continue to attack. History shows that the guerillas usually survive and often win. So get used to it, because, as this letter shows, no-one yet knows how to successfully fight militant terrorists.

[fishbane]

Justifing this as a premptive attack against terroism is BS. Using 9/11 or anything like the Cole is BS. The first Trade center bomb.

Most of this was done by Al quida. This is who we should be bombing or Nort Korea.

Sadam should have been taken care of the fist time.
Now it is all a smoke screen for the oil. So bush, Chenny and rice can make more money and election points. The new hasn't mentioned that it's offcial now, that Chenny's oil company is taking care of the Iraqie oil fields during and after the war.

The backlash from the real terrorists and the damage to our economy from this war and occupation will be great indeed. People will see this in hind sight.

[Big Dog]

Saddam could not be taken care of the first time. That was not the OBJECTIVE. The objective was to move him out of Kauwait(sp?). If we would have taken him out then people would have had a fit about that. Just can't please everyone all the time.

[Hoosier Daddy]

I remember hearing how Desert Storm was about oil....and now that argument is being made again. Could be true, but does it matter? I have not heard too many arguments that we did the wrong thing with Desert Storm, so how is it wrong now, but wasn't then?

I remember how Saddam chose to let people in his country starve rather than give up his bombs...This is the guy we should trust, be nice to, and hope he will just go away? Yeah, maybe he'll start treating his citizens better...or not.

I remember how he bombed and poisoned his own people because he could....It's probably not a good idea to make him give up his weapons, it's not like he's ever used them for ill purposes or anything.

I just don't get it. We are looking out for our interests. Is that selfish? Maybe, but it's what we have always done. I didn't often agree with Clinton's idea of what was best for the U.S., but I think he acted on his opinion of just that, at least in regards to foreign policy. Wasn't that selfish? We have a role to play in the international community. The U.N. demanded he turn that crap over and he hasn't. He had, what 13 or so years to do it, and thumbed his nose at the rest of the world the whole time. Let's put that thumb where it will do the most good and let's do it quickly and decisively or not at all. Our military personnel deserve to be able to blast through there and get it over with. God bless them. Thank you to those that are there now, and those that have been there before.

[Nuttinbutnet]

[img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img]