Since Sept. 11, the United States has been unified in the pursuit of stopping terrorism. That unity comes to a grinding halt at just that point.
Stopping the terrorists, according to President George W. Bush, is to be done by “any means necessary.”
That any means necessary is what divides us as a country. There are endless possibilities to “smoking” these terrorists out of their proverbial holes. There are just as many ways to stop the countries that harbor them as well.
But it all comes down to two real solutions: Either be passive and ignore what they do to our country or retaliate for what they’ve already done.
And this country has a long-standing history of doing the latter. Yes, the United States, its government and military have done things in history that in hindsight may have not been the best things to do.
The failed invasion of U.S. forces in the Bay of Pigs to stop communism in Cuba.
The Iran-Contra scandal in which the U.S. supplied arms to radical groups who tried to overthrow the Islamic regime.
The installment of a president in Haiti, that later turned into a coup d’etat of the president by the military.
Becoming the world’s police for countless conflicts including the civil war in the former Yugoslavia and the invasion of Iraq to protect oil interests in Kuwait.
Simply put, Vietnam.
But when anyone – country, militia or terrorist group – attacks this great country for no real reason, and in this case for an extreme interpretation of the Holy Quran to wipe out non-believers in a jihad or holy war, those who attack us on our soil should expect nothing less than a counterstrike to stop future attacks from happening.
The U.S.-led strikes against the Taliban and Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan, as well as his worldwide terrorist network al-Queda, were in essence a retaliatory attack. That was the right thing to do.
Some people in this country would like to believe that attacking them would be sinking to their level. But consider this, if we as a nation do not stand up for our life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, what would stop them from further attacks.
We’re scarred as a nation. We’re all afraid that we may have our lives taken for no real reason and the only way we can ward off such attacks is to stop them from being able to have plot such a thought ever again.
They have as much as a right to believe what they want as we do. We respect their freedom to dislike us for any reason. Speak out against what we may do wrong. Take steps to convince us that there’s a better way.
But the moment when those ideals and convictons turn to violence, violence against innocent people, that’s when we as a nation must stand up together to end the fear.
That is why we as a nation will fight back.