Yesterday's Terror

My friend CJ called me yesterday as I was on my way to Muskegon and asked me if we had called the national guard up to protect our airports. I was a little confused because I had been out late the night before and I hadn't heard the news on radio yet about the proposed airplane bombings. I quickly told CJ I would call him back and turned on FoxNews to get caught up. It was shocking to learn that the attackers were so advanced in their preparation. I think I had been lulled into sleep by the past 5 years. After yesterday's events, I have several observations about the war.

1. First of all our enemy is deadly determined to defeat us. These operations take years to prepare and they are willing to put their own life at stake in this war. I wish the anti-war crowd in the states would wake up and realize that we are not going to win this war by negotiation and retreat. Radical Islam wants to destroy us and they will patiently fight this war until the very end. They will never accept a peaceful coexistence between us and them. But for some reason many Americans think this is somehow possible. Forget about it.

2. I heard on the radio that some groups are complaining about Bush saying we are at war against Islamic Fascism. Apparently, they are worried that Muslims will get a bad reputation or something. Who do these people think we are fighting against? Church going Catholics? No, our enemy is those who are living out their Muslim faith. We may not like it and many good law abiding Muslims may take offense to it but that doesn't change the facts. Until we are serious about understanding that and I think Bush is, we will not make any real progress in this war. And if Muslims are so upset about ruining their reputation why don't work to defeat that vile faction within their own religion? I seldom hear of condemnation coming from the American Islamic community and usually only hear excuses for the terrorists.

3. This may sound strange in lieu of what I wrote earlier but I wonder if we aren't overestimating our enemies a bit. It seems to me that they are stuck in an old mode of operation. They tried this same plot back in 1995 and it failed then. So why try the same thing again a decade later? And with all the worry about them having chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, why are they still using make shift bombs? Does this reveal that they don't have weapons of mass destruction? Before yesterday I would have assumed they did but now I am not so sure. What I think yesterday's plan reveals is that they do not have strong leadership at the top to carry out their operations. It's mostly low level workers who remembered the plot from 1995 and could not think above that level of operation. If that's the case then we are making a lot of progress in this war.

4. The final observation I have is that even though it was scary to learn about the plot, yesterday was a big success. It was one of the few major operations that we were able to penetrate and stop before it happened. Whether it was electronic monitoring or a spy within their cell, we had very good information. So why are the Democrats continuing to attack Bush's failing policies. I heard one of them say if only we had more money to fight terror instead of the war in Iraq we would have more success. Did he not notice that we were able to stop the terrorists yesterday? It's like they had their talking points ready to go in case of an attack and went ahead with them even though the attack was prevented. I wish the Democrats once and for all would acknowledge that our Islamic enemy is a worse enemy than President Bush. Up to now, you would never know that by their actions.