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moral crusade to uproot the scourge of international terrorism, the U.S. is demonstrating a level of hypocrisy that threatens to undermine the very principles it seeks to uphold." Nor is a policy of selective support for terrorism practical. As Daniel Johnson points out in the London Telegraph, to abandon Israel now--proving that terror pays--would give the Islamists the srtongest possible incentive to escalate the global jihad.It may seem absurd to consider the possibility that the United States, the world's only superpower, could be defeated by a network of ragtag Islamists. But military power is not enough. One need look no farther than Israel, whose power in relation to the Palestinian Authority is at least as overwhelming as that of the United States vis a vis the Islamic states. There must also be clarity of purpose, unity, and staying power. Where there is no vision, the mightiest of people can perish.
Rael Jean Isaac is editor of Outpost.
(Senator McClintock is a state senator in California. It is encouraging that at every level of government in this country there are individuals of sound judgment, high intelligence, and eloquence who rise to the challenges confronting us. We reprint here excerpts from Sen McClintock's talk in Lodi, California on Sept. 19.)
We had planned to gather here for a political event, to discuss the pressing issues facing state government. But now there is a far greater issue facing civilization.
In many ways, the attack of September 11 was far more serious than Pearl Harbor. More than twice as many Americans have been killed. It was an attack not upon (what was then) a remote and distant territory, but rather upon our greatest city and upon our capital city. It was an attack not upon heavily armed warships, but upon utterly defenseless American citizens peacefully going about their business.
It is true that the Japanese used marked warplanes in their sneak attack--but there appears no doubt which terrorist organizations attacked America on September 11, and what states stand behind those organizations.
This is not an unknown enemy-- just a particularly despicable one.
The morning after Pearl Harbor, we didn't vow to bring the Japanese pilots to justice. We didn't fret that a vast ocean and treacherous atolls protected Japan and would make a war difficult to fight. We didn't worry about offending the sensibilities of neutral nations. We didn't lecture upon the difference between Japanese aggression and the peaceful teachings of Buddha. We waged war, and we continued to wage war until the other side could make war no longer.
And I have every confidence that this nation and its leaders have every bit of the determination to do so again, in response to a far greater attack upon our nation, our people and our freedoms.
This atrocity sets new records in the annals of recorded history for ruthlessness and barbarity and depravity. Binyamin Netanyahu called it a "wake-up call from hell," and indeed it is.
And that's where I believe all of this horror and death and sacrifice might well have been a blessing in one respect.
Before September 11, I think most of us had viewed terrorists as far-away fanatics and the governments that supported them as international nuisances. Years of left-wing policies had dismantled our intelligence agencies. Our military was ransacked. Provocation after provocation went virtually unchallenged. Meanwhile, these terrorist powers were growing in sophistication and size and reach and deadliness. As we have slept, they have been actively developing--and may be very close to acquiring--chemical and biological capabilities. They are supported by nations that are themselves close to achieving nuclear capabilities. And is there anyone in this country who now doubts that these powers have the depravity, the ruthlessness and the competence to use them against us the moment they have been acquired?
The issue is destroying an enemy that has the will--and will soon have the means--to destroy civilization.
If this had been a truck bomb that had killed two dozen, it would have been forgotten by next week. Thus, in one important respect, there was a blessing in all of this. Those many thousands of Americans did not die in vain. Their screams awakened our nation to the mortal peril that it had been blindly approaching--blindly, that is, until September 11.
As we mourn, we also vow never to forget those thousands of our fellow citizens who awakened the camp as they fell.
The issue before us is not about vengeance for our murdered countrymen. It is not about bringing anybody to justice. It is not about teaching anybody a lesson. It is about destroying an enemy that has the will--and will soon have the means--to destroy civilization. Unless we stop them.
And that is now the imperative of our generation.
I've heard it said that this is a shadowy and elusive enemy--like none we have ever faced before. I don't believe that. I don't believe it is any more shadowy or elusive than the fifth columns that we fought during World War II. Here at home, we waged war against the German Bund and the Irish Republican Army, and against an elabo-
[(Continued on p.6)]
November 2001 - 5 - Outpost