Why didn't the War on Terror start on November 4th, 1979?

Question

>This is not very long, but very informative. First you have to read the catalogue of events in this brief piece. Then, ask yourself how anyone can take the position that all we have to do is bring our troops home from Iraq, sit back, reset the snooze alarm, go back to sleep, and no one will ever bother us again. In case you missed it, the intro to World War III was on November 1979... that alarm has been ringing for years.

>US Navy Captain Ouimette is the Executive Officer at Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Florida. Here is a copy of the speech he gave last month. It is an accurate account of why we are in so much trouble today and why this action is so necessary.

>AMERICA NEEDS TO WAKE UP!
That's what we think we heard on the 11th of September 2001 (When more than 3,000 Americans were killed). 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 U. S. embassy set the stage for events to follow for the next 25 years.

>America was still reeling from the aftermath of the Vietnam 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 down sized/right sized since the end of the Vietnam 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 ignored it.

>Then just six short months later in 1983 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 and 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. America has been under attack since 1979, but we continue to sleep. This sleep has to stop and America needs to wake up.

Soon the terrorism spreads to Europe.

>In April 1985 a bomb explodes in a restaurant frequented by US soldiers in Madrid.
>Then in August 1985 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 interests are continually attacked.

>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!!!

>I think we have been in a war for the past 25 years and it will continue until we as a people decide enough is enough! America needs to "Get out of Bed" and act decisively now. America has been 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 keep hitting the snooze button again and again and roll over and go back to sleep. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Admiral Yamamoto said "... it seems all we have done is awakened a sleeping giant." This is the message we need to disseminate to terrorists around the world

The Munich Massacre was an attack on Israeli targets, not American or Western targets. But that is still an attack on US interests, in a way. And this is not my original work, but I though about this and realized that I think the exact way this person does.

Answer 1

It actually started in Germany in Munich.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_massacre

Answer 2

Why didn't it start then?

Because the US had the Cold War to justify its atrocities -- there was no need then for another "ultimate threat."

The trouble with your reasoning is that, instead of locating and stopping those who would harm us and who have actually harmed us, Bush went after a bunch of people who were no threat to us at all.

IN doing so he has inspired more people to become terrorists, and has alienated everyone in the world who WOULD have helped us locate and stop terrorists, but for Bush's terrorist actions.

If we had not consistently supported brutal oppressors against the oppressed, for the last century, most of the people who hate us wouldn't.

America DOES need to wake up, but not to what you say above. It needs to wake up and see that we have allowed our government to commit and abet terror in the name of it's bogus "just wars."

That's what the Cold War was (just as this "war" is) -- an excuse to abet and support those governments and groups who terrorize and their citizens. (We do it for the power and the profit to those few who own nearly everything.)

BTW, this site is SUPPOSED to be for questions, not "informational" rants.

Answer 3

I think if we stopped funding Saudi Arabia who in turn, takes the money and funds al queda and the sunni radicals in Iraq, it might be a good start to ending terrorism. Also, I think we need to pull out of Iraq and finish the job in Afghanistan and secure that nation. Bush hasn't even done a good job there either. The war in Iraq was never a war on terror, it is a war for empire and oil. Be clear on that first. I'm all for securing the country against terrorism. But IRaq isn't that war.

Terrorism from the mid-east was going on during the Nixon adminstration. Hi-jacking of 5 jets including 1 American jet from Amsterdam were flown to Jordan by Palestinian militants.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/6/newsid_2500000/2500667.stm

Answer 4

Excellent Post!

And you are right. The War on Terror should have started on 11/4/79. We simply stuck our heads in the sand and hoped the boogey man would go away.

Answer 5

Personally, I believe that when we let Iran keep our citizens so long, that just gave those " Terrorist " more room to believe we were cowards. Now the Liberals are convincing citizens of America that we are the bad guys....I kinda believe that " Kool-Aid " is really getting popular. God Bless America !!

Answer 6

I agree, Reagan should have just ordered the Middle East glassed over then, because that is the only thing that will ever stop radical islamic terrorism.

Answer 7

It did or the Republicans tried to raise a warning. Lt. Col Oliver North tried in vain to warn this country but the Democratic lead congress tried to put him in jail.

Answer 8

that was the first strike in the war. we waited for a president with big balls to retaliate. ( out of respect, Mr. Reagan didn't take any crap either--"they counted on America to be passive, they counted wrong..." i forget the speech, but it was a response to an attack from Hezbollah, i think.)

Answer 9

because that was about 60 years after the modern terrorist movement started. i would post links,but i'm sure you are not interested in anything close to the truth. it sounds like you are just giving a irrational reason to hate carter

Answer 10

The left doesn't believe terrorism is a real threat.