You can’t negotiate with terrorists. You are more likely to get Keith Olbermann to register Republican than you are to get a man willing to blow himself up to put down his weapons and hug a European, American or Israeli. Why is it, then, that I have professors in this University who think the reaction to 9/11 should have been to negotiate with al-Qaida? What could we possibly have negotiated with them? “Death to America” and “Death to the Infidels” are zero-sum games.
How is it that we have lost our perspective? Our national will? How is it that as a culture the West has almost completely lost its ability to deal with reality as it is? People today seem to only want to ever deal with reality the way they would like it to be, and when others don’t play by the rules we tune it out so as to avoid shattering the nice little bubble that has been created around us to block out the things that make us uncomfortable. This has so far produced a dangerous and lethargic attitude toward terrorism. It leaves us with delusions that we can negotiate and deal peacefully with people who want to see us killed or converted.
When did we lose our will to confront evil? We fought fascism because the very existence of dictators like Hitler and Mussolini posed palpable threats to us, not just as a country, but as a civilization. No sane person argues the importance of our contribution to the war and no one would say that our soldiers’ lives were wasted in fighting Hitler’s armies. Yet can you imagine if the Normandy landings had occurred in today’s media-saturated environment? We would have been out of World War II the following morning. If the battle for the little spit of land in the middle of the Pacific known as Iwo Jima had happened today, we would have surrendered to Japan the following morning. Can you even imagine the public outcry if America had watched their sons being thrown at Hitler’s Atlantic wall?
There should be no doubt that this fight is no different from World War II in terms of who our enemies are. They are merciless and determined, and will not be easily beaten. But it is no less important that they be stopped. Just like Hitler, they see themselves as the righteous ones and mistake our compassion for weakness. Osama bin Laden saw us as a paper tiger after our flimsy responses to the embassy bombings, the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole and our half-hearted attempt to calm Somalia in 1994. He gave pause only when we struck back with such overwhelming force in 2001 and 2003. President Bush made a clear statement to him and other extremists that we are not a paper tiger and that we do have teeth. Now with a new president it again falls upon him to show that the United States does not back down from terror. Even in a just war there are unjust consequences.
“Yes we can!” is not new concept. It’s only recently that people have to be reminded. Whatever happened to, “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat”? Whatever happened to, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself”? What ever happened to the real yes-we-can attitude of this country when faced with hardship? I cannot imagine the pain of the families that have lost in the war on terror, but I do know that if we do not see our campaign against terror to the end, then their sacrifices will have been in vain. After all, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
Some would accuse me of trying to minimize the value of every life that is lost in battles the world over; it is truly a tragedy every single time a coffin has to come home draped in any flag. Those men and women died heroically defending what they believed in, they died for a cause. They died to protect us, just as the soldiers who stormed the French beaches half a century ago died to free Europe from the clutches of hatred, evil and oppression.