Problem Identification

[by Mary Mostert, Banner of Liberty; reposted with permission]

Five years [and one week] ago today Americans experienced a sneak attack on two major American cities, New York and Washington, D.C. that resulted in a larger death toll than Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. Pearl Harbor led to Congress declaring war on both Japan and Germany by December 9, 1941. Five years after 9-11, on the other hand, we are facing an election in less than 2 months which will decide whether or not Americans will choose to run and hide from our enemies by denying they even exist or whether we will choose leaders who realize they need to figure out how to .save not only the United States but the civilized world.

Two years ago, following a terrorist attack in Madrid, Spain that killed 191 people and wounded over 1700. President George W. Bush spoke to members of his administration and Congress, reminding them that they were part of a “new kind of war, (where) civilians find themselves suddenly on the front lines.”

He reminded us that “terrorists have struck from Spain, to Russia, to Israel, to East Africa, to Morocco, to the Philippines, and to America. They've targeted Arab states such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Yemen. They have attacked Muslims in Indonesia, Turkey, Pakistan, Iraq, and Afghanistan. No nation or region is exempt from the terrorists' campaign of violence.”

And, then he described the kind of world war it is:

“…There is no neutral ground - no neutral ground - in the fight between civilization and terror, because there is no neutral ground between good and evil, freedom and slavery, and life and death.”

However, it appears that a very large number of people in America do not agree with President Bush. They clearly think that there IS neutral ground between good and evil, freedom and slavery, life and death. One of them appears to be the Chairman of the Democratic Party, Howard Dean, who said only [nine] days ago:

“Things are going badly for us around the world , our troops deserve better than this. If the Republicans would listen to the military before we go on these adventures rather than afterwards we would have a better shot … Iran is a greater danger, North Korea is a greater danger and the President has done very little about these…”

To Howard Dean, it's not a fight for civilization – it’s merely a political adventure. Actually, of course, the issue here is leadership. Who can identify and formulate action to address problems that may come up? President George W. Bush on January 29, 2002 in his State of the Union address angered the Democrats and much of the world by saying:

“My hope is that all nations will heed our call, and eliminate the terrorist parasites who threaten their countries and our own. Many nations are acting forcefully. Pakistan is now cracking down on terror, and I admire the strong leadership of President Musharraf.

“But some governments will be timid in the face of terror. And make no mistake about it: If they do not act, America will. (Applause.)

“Our second goal is to prevent regimes that sponsor terror from threatening America or our friends and allies with weapons of mass destruction. Some of these regimes have been pretty quiet since September the 11th. But we know their true nature. North Korea is a regime arming with missiles and weapons of mass destruction, while starving its citizens.

“Iran aggressively pursues these weapons and exports terror, while an unelected few repress the Iranian people's hope for freedom.

“Iraq continues to flaunt its hostility toward America and to support terror. The Iraqi regime has plotted to develop anthrax, and nerve gas, and nuclear weapons for over a decade. This is a regime that has already used poison gas to murder thousands of its own citizens - leaving the bodies of mothers huddled over their dead children. This is a regime that agreed to international inspections - then kicked out the inspectors. This is a regime that has something to hide from the civilized world.”

Well, Iraq no longer has Saddam Hussein threatening Kurds and others with anthrax and nerve gas, nor is he in a position to develop, or to hide, his nuclear weapons program. Iraqis now are governed by a new Iraqi Constitution and newly ELECTED representatives.

According to Howard Dean and many others – this is not progress, but to their credit many of them have finally figured out that there IS some sort of problem out there, although so far I've not heard any plan to actually DO anything about it. However, George W. Bush figured out five years ago what the problem was and he immediately formulated a plan to DO something about it. He even told us what he intended to do and has DONE what he told us he would do.

The Democrats under Howard Dean would like for us to believe this is merely a passing POLITICAL problem that could be easily corrected by choosing Democrats to run Congress and to occupy the White House in 2008.

It should be obvious to just about every nation in the world by now that President Bush was right in identifying the problem as a war on terrorists who have to be eliminated – not appeased or bought off. Furthermore, the terrorists are seemingly 100% Islamic fascists who were appeased and given US Air Force and NATO protection as recently as 1999 when President Clinton, and most of Europe’s leaders attempted to placate the Iranian-financed and Osama bin Laden-trained Kosovo Liberation Army by bombing our traditional Christian allies, the Serbs.
While this was not mentioned in the ABC film about 9-11 last [Sunday], in spite of the Democrats vigorous effort to block ABC’s freedom of speech, the film did, finally, tell the American people that the Clinton administration never actually identified the problem and therefore was incapable of addressing the problem of worldwide terror during his administration.

George W. Bush DID address the problem. It will be up to the American voters in the November 2006 election, and in the 2008 election, to choose leaders who can at LEAST identify problems and try to solve them before they totally destroy our freedoms and our nation.