Wake Up America

[Tino]

Got this from the old man via email the other day, fig'r some of ya'll might enjoy it.

Here's something worth reading.

** AMERICA WAKE UP! Speech given by US Navy Captain Dan Ouimette, to the Pensacola Civitan Club Feb 19, 2003. Captain Ouimette is the Executive Officer of NAS, Pensacola, FL. ***

_____________________________________________

Pensacola Civitan 19 Feb 2003

America WAKE UP!

That's what we think we heard on the 11th of September 2001 and maybe it was, but I think it should have been "Get Out of Bed!" In fact, I think the alarm clock has been buzzing since 1979 and we have continued to hit the snooze button and roll over for a few more minutes of peaceful sleep since then.

It was a cool fall day in November 1979 in a country going through a religious and political upheaval when a group of Iranian students attacked and seized the American Embassy in Tehran. This seizure was an outright attack on American soil; it was an attack that held the world's most powerful country hostage and paralyzed a Presidency. The attack on this sovereign US embassy set the stage for the events to follow for the next 23 years.

America was still reeling from the aftermath of the Viet Nam experience and had a serious threat from the Soviet Union when then, President Carter, had to do something. He chose to conduct a clandestine raid in the desert. The ill-fated mission ended in ruin, but stood as a symbol of America's inability to deal with terrorism. America's military had been decimated and downsized / right sized since the end of the Viet Nam war. A poorly trained, poorly equipped and poorly organized military was called on to execute a complex mission that was doomed from the start.

Shortly after the Tehran experience, Americans began to be kidnapped and killed throughout the Middle East. America could do little to protect her citizens living and working abroad. The attacks against US soil continued.

In April of 1983 a large vehicle packed with high explosives was driven into the US Embassy compound in Beirut. When it explodes, it kills 63 people. The alarm went off again and America hit the Snooze Button once more. Then just six short months later a large truck heavily laden down with over 2500 pounds of TNT smashed through the main gate of the US Marine Corps headquarters in Beirut. 241 US servicemen are killed. America mourns her dead and hit the Snooze Button once more. Two months later in December 1983, another truck loaded with explosives is driven into the US Embassy in Kuwait, and America continues her slumber. The following year, in September 1984, another van was driven into the gates of the US Embassy in Beirut and America slept.

Soon the terrorism spreads to Europe. In April 1985 a bomb explodes in a restaurant frequented by US soldiers in Madrid. Then in August a Volkswagen loaded with explosives is driven into the main gate of the US Air Force Base at Rhein-Main, 22 are killed and the Snooze Alarm is buzzing louder and louder as US soil is continually attacked. Fifty-nine days later a cruise ship, the Achille Lauro is hijacked and we watched as an American in a wheelchair is singled out of the passenger list and executed. The terrorists then shift their tactics to bombing civilian airliners when they bomb TWA Flight 840 in April of 1986 that killed 4 and the most tragic bombing, Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, killing 259. America wants to treat these terrorlst acts as crimes; in fact we are still trying to bring these people to trial. These are acts of war...the Wake Up alarm is louder and louder.

The terrorists decide to bring the fight to America. In January 1993, two CIA agents are shot and killed as they enter CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. The following month, February 1993, a group of terrorists are arrested after a rented van packed with explosives is driven into the underground parking garage of the World Trade Center in New York City. Six people are killed and over 1000 are injured. Still this is a crime and not an act of war? The Snooze alarm is depressed again.

Then in November 1995 a car bomb explodes at a US military complex in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia killing seven service men and women. A few months later in June of 1996, another truck bomb explodes only 35 yards from the US military compound in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. It destroys the Khobar Towers, a US Air Force barracks, killing 19 and injuring over 500.

The terrorists are getting braver and smarter as they see that America does not respond decisively. They move to coordinate their attacks in a simultaneous attack on two US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. These attacks were planned with precision, they kill 224. America responds with cruise missile attacks and goes back to sleep.

The USS Cole was docked in the port of Aden, Yemen for refueling on 12 October 2000, when a small craft pulled along side the ship and exploded killing 17 US Navy Sailors. Attacking a US War Ship is an act of war, but we sent the FBI to investigate the crime and went back to sleep.

And of course you know the events of 11 September 2001. Most Americans think this was the first attack against US soil or in America. How wrong they are. America has been under a constant attack since 1979 and we chose to hit the snooze alarm and roll over and go back to sleep.

In the news lately we have seen lots of finger pointing from every high official in government over what they knew and what they didn't know. But if you've read the papers and paid a little attention I think you can see exactly what they knew. You don't have to be in the FBI or CIA or on the National Security Council to see the pattern that has been developing since 1979. The President is right on when he says we are engaged in a war. I think we have been in a war for the past 23 years and it will continue until we as a people decide enough is enough.

America has to "Get out of Bed" and act decisively now. America has changed forever. We have to be ready to pay the price and make the sacrifice to ensure our way of life continues. We cannot afford to hit the Snooze Button again and roll over and go back to sleep. We have to make the terrorists know that in the words of Admiral Yamamoto after the attack on Pearl Harbor "that all they have done is to awaken a sleeping giant."

Thank you very much.

Dan Ouimette

[yashin]

um... not sure on how to respond to this.I thought that there was a ban on a type of political threads

[Tino]

fred took it down, or someone did its not up there.

[yeswepromise]

cliffs notes?

[MasterMan]

tino stop yelling at me

[Tino]

cliffs notes?

if it doesn't interest don't read it man I know it's boring to a lot of people, thats coo.

[Onizuka]

good speach, makes some really good points.

[Tino]

tino stop yelling at me

It's not me man, those voices in your head again! or are they.... hmmm

[skydragoness]

the terrorlst groups now know that the U.S government won't take them lightly.we have our $400billion (or so) deficit to show for it.and the 'war on terrorism' won't endthe author brought a good point in cataloging terrorlst activities since 1979. forgot to mention why they started.

[sammy]

ummmm.......so why do ya think the started sky?

the speech also forgot to mention the home grown terrorlst attack right here in okc

[skydragoness]

i think the involvement of the US in Palestinian/Israel affairs in the 60's-onwards sparked some of the terrorlst attacks as well.

homegrown terrorism is overlooked too, good point.

[tkd_q45]

Interesting point in that US Navy Captain Dan Ouimette speech says nothing about what the hell we are doing in the middle east in the first place. I'm NOT saying that terrorism is right but I am saying that we need to look at the LONG term affects of our foreign policies abroad.

We put the Shah in power. He was a brutal dictator that oppressed his people.

We put Saddam Hussein in power. He was a brutal dictator that oppressed his people. Why didn't we do something when he gassed the Kurds years before the FIRST gulf war?

We backed the Taliban. Taliban is a brutal political alibeit religeous based group that was brutal and oppressed the people.

We back the Saudi family which is a brutal dictatorship - albiet not as over or bad as Saddam but bad enough for people like Binladin to be able to use them as ralling point to do what he has been doing.

The lists go on and on. I'm not even getting into the people we back/have back in Latin America - Remember Noriega? Another one we put into power then had to take out.

Why don't we stop building monsters that we have to later destroy? Or is that the game plan? Wag the Dog?

[skydragoness]

:Werd

[Meantime]

Unfortunately, that is the game plan, comrades. Watch carefully who we "elect" to run Iraq. Chances are it will be another wolf in sheeps clothing, who will smile for the cameras and promise reforms, etc. etc. and then, a decade from now, another enemy. That seems to be about par for the course.

Nations reap what they sow, and we've been sowing since the '50s. And we'll put in power - or remove from power -whoever will (or will not) serve our interests...regardless of what their human character is like. (see also: Liberia, Charles Taylor)

No terrorlst attack is justified by any means, but continually provoking people around the globe is not conducive to the ultimate goal of "world peace", either.

I've been to Egypt and Malaysia within the past year so I have a somewhat different perspective. People didn't hate me because I was an American, contrary to my own expectations. But there is a very palpable sense of fear and resentment running through those countries towards the West, and not all of it is unjustified.

I agree. Wake up, America...there's a bigger world out there than just our continent.