PrintMay 11, 2009
Mission Accomplished?
Eight years after war was declared on the US and the most heinous attack on the USA was launched on American soil, the war has been won (according to President Obama). Done. Over. Does not exist.
No need to call it the war on terror, so says Obama. Now it is merely an "overseas contingency operation". How wonderful.
Staunch allies in the war against the jihad are no longer relevant or necessary. They have become our adversaries -- Obama believes our security lies with Islamic allies.
Homeland security is refocusing its efforts on domestic threats. Proud Jews like me ("Jewish extremists"), veterans (the malleable variety), tea party activists and assorted Americans are to be feared, monitored, silenced. Normal is the new enemy. Reason and rational, the reviled.
Frankly, it appears to me that the Department of Homeland Security ought to be dismantled. It was established to fight Islam's war on the USA. According to the Obama administration, this is no longer a threat, so why not shut it down and save taxpayers an enormous amount of money?
If we are closing Gitmo, and these killers no longer pose a threat to our national security, why stop there? Just yesterday, Obama halted the program in New York to detect biological attacks. Further deep cost cutting measures could be taken in the same spirit. Dismantle the bloated TSA. Little old ladies need not be harassed at airports anymore. Americans will not have to spend untold hours on line having their moisturizers and lotions and cosmetics confiscated by lucky TSA employees (ah, how many bottles of Eau de Italia have I surrendered).
But most importantly, let's give President George W. Bush his due. He won the war, apparently. Who could forget the terror that was struck in the hearts of every American on 911? Abject terror. The horror. As a New Yorker, I will never forget the stench of molten steel, plastic, paper and human flesh that hung in the air over Manhattan for months, and the spontaneous memorials that popped up on corners in and around New York. In neighborhoods surrounding my Long Island community alone, we lost 344 Americans. Many were among those great Americans who gave their lives on Flight 93, succeeding in sparing the capital of unthinkable carnage and death.
Worse still, for days, weeks, months after, we waited for what we knew in our bones was coming. More Islamic attacks. What American reading this can forget looking over their shoulder thinking, who, what where will be next? Anthrax! How anxious we were to destroy those who attacked us. Never again!
But President Bush took a steady, strategic approach. One I agreed with, and still do, even if the country has abandoned the Bush doctrine. The first political editorial I ever wrote was "The Case for War," which appeared in my local newspaper in October of 2004. I stand by it, despite the enemy within America that sought to demonize that valiant effort. Bush took a sober approach going to Congress and then to a UN largely driven by the Organization of the Islamic Conference, and got the votes to defend America.
When Bush stood under the banner "mission accomplished," he was wildly derided (despite the fact that the mission of overthrowing Saddam was indeed accomplished). But now, with the vision and privilege of hindsight and Obama's recent proclamations, the larger mission of defeating the enemy was indeed accomplished.
Whether you supported Bush's strategy to win was a matter of great debate particularly among those in America that inherently dislike America. And everyone is entitled to his opinion, but at the end of the day, Bush kept us safe. Bush busted the enemy. Bush went after the jihad in America and eight years later, we elected a radical Alinskyite. Could such a thing have been possible without Bush winning the war?
In truth, I for one do not believe this war is over. I believe it has just begun and Islamic jihad is fresh off the bloody spoils of Obama's capitulation and appeasement accompanied by the surrender of Europe. That, I am sure, makes me a domestic terror threat. But, it's just an opinion, fellas, you can't bust me for that. Not yet.
Pamela Geller is Editor and Publisher of Atlas Shrugs.
