msnbc.com
The columnist Charles Krauthammer demanded that the United States overthrow the governments of four countries: Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Iran. According to some news reports, there was support in the Administration for such a program. If a campaign on this scale is launched, the prediction that World War III is upon us will become more likely. Is the world of 2001 set on a course that will cost tens of millions of lives, or more? The men with the box cutters cannot by themselves bring it off. But an enraged, blind superpower could manage it. Krauthammer’s four wars could do it. They could transform the local catastrophe in New York and Washington into a global one.
The author of this statement, Mr. Jonathan Schell, apparently does not quite understand the catastrophe that has now enveloped world civilization. This was not a "local" catastrophe.
I find it quite curious that, though most Arab and Islamic nations have condemned the brutal murder of six thousands innocent civilians in New York and Washington, while also ending each and every sentence with a "but please understand the reasons for this, the mistakes you have made that led to this," that the fact remains that NOT ONE SINGLE ISLAMIC STATE HAS AGREED TO ACTIVELY PURSUE MASS MURDERERS AMONG THEIR POPULACE WITH MILITARY FORCE IF THIS BECOMES NECESSARY. At this point, I fear that unless some stronger words and deeds come from the Arab world now, I do not feel these nations are worthy of our trust in this time of crisis. I wonder if they are truly loyal to civilization.
Though I am certainly no supporter of the provocative record of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in the past, as I believe Yasser Arafat should be stripped of his Nobel Peace Prize for, among other things, publicly describing the terrorist who a few days ago murdered several innocent civilians in Israel "a hero," I nevertheless feel that there is some truth and wisdom in the words he spoke yesterday evening, which echoed those of great leaders in times we once believed were long since past:
Israel is a country that suffers from terror since its establishment, and it is the duty of the government of Israel to defend its citizens and to prevent any and all forms of terror attacks against innocent populations.
I call on the Western democracies and primarily the leader of the free world, the United States: Do not repeat the dreadful mistake of 1938 when enlightened European democracies decided to sacrifice Czechoslovakia for a convenient temporary solution.
Do not try to appease the Arabs at our expense. This is unacceptable to us. Israel will not be Czechoslovakia. Israel will fight terrorism.
I am curious why in public the leaders of the United States have suggested that states declared sponsors of international terrorism by its own State Department may possibly be included in the coalition against terrorism, but Israel, the only democracy in the region of the Middle East, should be clearly excluded. There is a disturbing moral decay and a great danger in such statements and actions.
I stated earlier that I truly hope and believe the United States intends to divide and conquer these individuals groups and states who have targeted the innocent one by one, using all stratagems of disinformation and seeming diplomacy at its disposal. The recent statements, seeming to retreat from the original and proper declaration that all states and governments supporting terrorism are legitimate targets of war, that this war is now not a conventional one, are gravely mistaken and flawed, if they are a true indication of present United States policy. They are dangerous to a degree the nation has not witnessed in decades, and our enemies view them as extreme weakness and paralysis, the degenerate response of a spoiled, decadent nation on the decline. Nothing is more dangerous than this.
I hope the United States and its friends and allies the world over quickly make very clear to all who would support indiscriminate murder that the consequences shall be nothing less than a far greater catastrophe to their interests than they could possibly imagine. If in the end the culprits prove to be either a minority or, sadly and shockingly, a majority of peoples and nations of the Gulf region, then I hope moral clarity is achieved, and appropriate steps are taken to rid the world of a calamitous that if inaction, confusion and denial take over, threatens to swamp civilization in years to come. |
