A Rant/World War III/Reality Check

2 April 2004

Recently, I've heard many people whining about gas prices. And have yet not heard the appropriate reply. "Don't you know there is a war on?". Gas may be a bit pricey, but it's plentiful. There is no rationing.

And yes, Virginia, we are at war. All out. The declaration was hand delivered by airliner on September 11th. There are many people who want to kill us. Not negotiate. Kill. And not just soldiers or politicians. Us. You. Me. This is no joke. They've killed our soldiers in Somalia, Saudi, Kuwait, sailors in Yemen, diplomats in Tanzania and Kenya, along with lots of innocent victims, many of whom were muslim. All BEFORE 9/11. (also on Dick Clark's watch) Now they target stockbrokers and secretaries. Apparently Allah hates typing 70 wpm or Word Perfect skills. Their motto apparently is "death to all who oppose us". They do not seek a political settlement. They seek blood. Our blood. They have declared Jihad on us and the Israelis, since we, a 228 year old country and a 56 year old country are apparently responsible for every evil that has befallen Islam in it's 1200 year history. Jihad means they are sworn to wipe us off the face of the earth. They want to kill you, your children and your dog if he doesn't bark in Farsi. Either we fight them or we die. There are no other options. It's called war. Don't even try saying "But why me? I've never done anything to them. I didn't even vote for (insert politicians name here)." They don't care. You are an American. You must die.

Our enemies are global. This IS World War III.

And just who are these who seek your death? They are primarily young, relatively well educated, and immensely dissatisfied people. They primarily come from Arab nations ruled by sultans, princes and many dictators. Maybe we should look at Arabia in general.

What do the Arabs do? What are they known for? Oil, terrorists and....um....er..... I guess that's about it. America is known for agriculture, movies, technology, etc. French food, German cars, Japanese electronics, Chinese consumer goods, and so on. Arab oil and terrorists. that's it. These capable people have oil and no real economy, opportunity or freedom. Therefor we get terrorists.

But oil does bring in a LOT of money. So what happens to it? Primarily palaces, gold plated Kalashnikovs, etc. Some is spent on education. Primarily Madrases, religious schools that only teach the Koran from whatever Imam's point of view. No math, science, literature, just the Koran. Someone with only a biblical education, from whatever religious view, would be very limited. But some people manage to get a better education. This prepares them for.....um...what? With no real economy, democracy, or freedoms, they have no real prospects.

Also remember that the tiny nation of Israel has thoroughly defeated the combined forces of Arabia three times. 1948, 1967, and 1973. And the arabs started them.

An educated and thoroughly dissatisfied populace, with humiliating defeats is ripe for any hate monger. Remember Munich?

Apparently the Arab leaders and mullahs do. They blame the US and Israel for everything wrong in the lives of the populace. With no free press to contradict such assertions with historical fact, such lies are readily believed. These same leaders have misused the trillions in foreign aid over the last century, denied basic freedoms to the people, chained them, tortured them, starved them, and generally acted like little tin horn bastards. If the people thought about this, the leaders would die unpleasant deaths. So they misdirect the people. "The US and Israel are keeping you down", ad nauseum. See Al-Jazeera for full details. They don't understand that we're not free because we are rich and powerful. We are rich and powerful because we are free.

So history repeats itself. Once again we are at war with some bastards who seek to dominate the world. Let's look at that history.

Arabia was oppressed from Roman times until they were freed from the Ottoman empire, the Roman's political descendants, in 1918. The Ottoman-Turks were fellow muslims, by the way. And who freed them? Those evil lackeys of America, the British. And the Brits granted independence to most of Arabia by the end of the last World War. There was no Palestine, or Palestinians until 1918. Until then it was the Trans-Jordan region, not a country. Also remember that the disputed areas near Israel were lost by the Arab forces in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. The Arabs started a war and got their clock cleaned. And lost ground. (note to Arabs - you started it - you lost - get over it).

Lately, there has been a lot of flak about "going to war" in Iraq. Just in case you missed the above, we've been at war for two and a half years. A World War. The enemy is fighting in America, Malaysia, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Spain, and Iraq. We didn't go to war in Iraq, war already existed. Therefore any dispute is with troop deployments. We opened a second front. The thought that we must go to the UN, and get French approval before we act is ludicrous. Normally it's the French surrendering to someone, I don't think America should be the first to reverse that trend

Whether or not there are WMD's in Iraq, it was a good strategic decision to invade.

First, we have eased the logistic problems of our enemies. It's much easier to move and fight in Iraq for them than to be in a western country. Our troops in Iraq are also a tempting target. Sounds bad on it's face, doesn't it. Again, this is war. We have a choice of where to fight our enemies. While I realize the danger to our boys and girls in uniform, I would rather that the enemy try to attack trained troops with assault weapons and tanks than secretaries and brokers here at home. If they choose to fight quality troops, they die. War is won by killing the enemy, and that is best done in their home instead of ours.

Second, we have pre-empted a sure threat. Saddam Hussein had been shooting at our pilots for years, day after day. That is an act of war. Our pilots were enforcing the UN mandated No-Fly Zone. He had tried to assassinate a President. If he could have found a way to deploy a WMD to the US, he would have done so. Many people are saying that the US should have done something to pre-empt 9/11. Invariably, these are the same loud-mouths who say we had no reason to go to Iraq. SURPRISE!! We did pre-empt a threat. We did just what you complained we didn't do before, you're still pissed.

Lastly is the most important strategic reason. If we succeed in leaving a free, democratic, and prosperous Iraq, it removes the basic cause for WW III. The people can hope for a better future, and achieve it. Our enemies know this, that is one of the reasons they are fighting so hard in Iraq. When this Iraq is achieved, Arabs will notice. Our enemies and the Arab leaders and Mullahs can no longer blame the America for their problems. And the Arabs will begin to wonder why they don't have such freedoms and prosperity in their own countries. Their leaders are very afraid of this and want us to fail. Including some of our "allies". No wonder they opposed the invasion.

This war has been started by islamics, not Islam. Islam is an ancient and honorable religion. We in America have fought and died for religious freedom. But when some evil men pervert a religion for their own megalomaniacal purposes, and start killing, you shouldn't be surprised if we kill them back. These bastards use children as human bombs. That is not in
Islam. They also routinely torture and kill other islamics. Sounds a bit like Japan's "Asia for the asians" propoganda they used while enslaving millions. Whatever they call themselves, they are a danger to ALL peaceful people and must be stopped.

We have fought for muslim freedoms in Bosnia, and to stop the brutal conquest of Kuwait recently. American blood was shed for islamics. We don't care about your religion, that's your business. We do try to stop great wrongs.

It's time for Americans to do a reality check. We are at war. A world war. We must be victorious or die. To win, all unnecessary things must wait. If we win, we'll have lots of time to play politics and be divided along political/racial/gender/height/shoe-size lines. If not, it won't matter anyway. Is your criticism really necessary?

Dr. Peter M. Grout