Posted by
Michael on Saturday, October 21, 2006 11:30:02 AM
The issue to be thinking about this election season is not what Mark Foley said to an underage page in an instant message. It’s not what George Allen said to a campaign stalker. It’s not what Mike McGavick did in the 1990s. It’s not gas prices, high or low. What we should be thinking about is the war and who will keep us safe.
It’s been over five years now since we were attacked by vicious terrorists on September 11, 2001. The chain of attacks on our embassies and on our homeland, from the first World Trade Center attack to the USS Cole, came to a head on that day. And since then, we have not been attacked.
Is this is a coincidence? Has the country been lucky?
I think not.
The lack of attacks on our soil is a result of President Bush and the Republican Congress’ anti-terror policies. Once the dust settled from Ground Zero, they got to doing what they could to make sure that we never repeat what happened that day.
Amazingly, President George Bush has managed to tackle this threat against our security while protecting our civil liberties more than any other wartime president. Despite opposition to the Patriot Act, no serious case of the Patriot Act violating constitutional rights has been brought forth.
During World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt ordered Executive Order 9066, which interned tens of thousands of Japanese, many American citizens, against their will. Nothing like that has happened in the years following 9/11, and the government treats Muslim Americans the same as any other American.
Our safety has not come from us taking up diplomacy and “talking” with the terrorists. It came by going on the offense. Immediately following 9/11, the regime of the Taliban, which had outraged the world already with the destruction of the 1800 year old Bamiyan Buddhist statues, was taken out of power. The Taliban had for several years given haven to terror leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri and allowed Al Qaeda to have training camps in their borders.
In 2003, the Bush Administration took the more controversial act of deposing Saddam Hussein. Saddam Hussein did not have direct ties to the 9/11 attacks, but his was the only regime in the world to openly celebrate the attacks. Saddam Hussein had also offered sanctuary to known terrorists, including deceased insurgent leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Abdul Yasin, a suspect in the first World Trade Center bombing, and had given monetary support to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers.
No one ever said that the struggle against Islamic terrorism would be easy. We’re fighting a deadly, suicidal and sophisticated enemy that is extremely patient. However, it’s a struggle that we cannot afford to lose.
So when you go to the voting booth, remember you have two choices: The Democrats, the party of Nancy Pelosi and Ned Lamont, who says we should “negotiate with our enemies,” or the Republicans, who have prevented us from being attacked by being on the offensive.