OT: America WAKE UP!

[Guest guest]

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. IMHO

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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