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To: The Barracuda™ who wrote (77322)	9/24/2001 5:25:44 PM
From: Enigma	Respond to of 116752

It's not alone of course - but does Israel abuse human rights - yes or no?

To: The Barracuda™ who wrote (77322)	9/24/2001 5:31:40 PM
From: The Barracuda™	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116752

The United States must wage war with a moral righteousness matching that of her enemies. America's Battle with Moral Uncertainty By Stephen Siek and Tore Boeckmann On September 11, nineteen men gave up their lives in the cause of destroying America and the values that she stands for: rationality, freedom, the pursuit of material prosperity — all symbolized by the World Trade Center. The terrorist attack was an act of unspeakable evil. Yet the men who committed it possessed one quality not usually associated with evildoers: a strong sense of moral righteousness. In a recent video message, terrorist puppet-master Osama bin Laden intoned: "We will see again Saladin carrying his sword, with the blood of unbelievers dripping from it." Regarding America as "the Great Satan," bin Laden and his ilk will stop at nothing, and brook no compromise in seeking our destruction. Will we brook no compromise in seeking theirs? America cannot win the war against terrorism if our leaders do not meet the righteousness of our enemies with an unbending moral certainty in the justness of our own cause, and in the superiority of our values. We cannot combat their fanatical faith with timid self-doubt, no matter how many bombs we possess. For one thing, it takes moral certainty to drop the bombs — and to know where to drop them. The initial signs from the Bush administration are discouraging, in spite of some good rhetoric. Every nation "now has a decision to make," President Bush said in his address to Congress. "Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists." Yet, the president seems determined to seek the sanction of world opinion before taking any specific military action, on the premise that we as a nation have no right to act on our own judgment or convictions, unless vindicated by the collective judgment of many disparate nations — including backward Arab dictatorships, and communist China. It is true that allies might be useful in this war — but only allies who follow America's lead, not those who undercut our will and our strategy. How do we get the right kind of allies? By self-confidently taking charge, formulating clear objectives, then inviting others to follow, and saying to those who kick up a fuss: "You are the weakest link. Goodbye." This is not how our leaders are proceeding. After President Bush described our fight against terrorism as a "crusade" — a word choice indicative of moral determination — our Arab "allies" protested that they did not like the word's historical roots. The administration apologized. Next, the Pentagon's code name for its military buildup leaked: "Infinite Justice" — a morally self-confident name. But emboldened by their success over the word "crusade," voices in the Arab world at once protested that only Allah is qualified to administer ultimate justice. This implies that the only source of moral righteousness is the God worshiped by the terrorists who killed thousands of Americans, and that if America presumes to fight back, she must not do so on a moral basis that contradicts the beliefs of her attackers. In response, our leaders did not tell the objectors to go to hell. Instead, the administration scrapped the code name, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld declaring that whatever new name they came up with would be one that "in no way at all would raise any question on the part of any religion or any group of people." Except, one assumes, those who care about America's self-esteem. If anyone had hoped that President Bush would be better than his administration, he disappointed those hopes in his address to Congress. The terrorists, he said, are "the heirs of all the murderous ideologies of the 20th century." This is true, but consider the examples he went on to give: "fascism, Nazism and totalitarianism." The unnamed five-hundred-pound gorilla in this sentence is the word "communism" — which Bush was desperate to avoid, fearful that our Chinese "allies" might take offense. All these acts of appeasement are not mere "semantics." If fear of offending any dictatorship on earth is already governing the words of our administration, can anyone doubt that the same fear will soon govern its actions? And then, can anyone doubt the disastrous consequences for both our war aims and our men in uniform? President Bush has identified freedom as the fundamental value at stake in the war against terrorism, and he has said that in defending freedom, we will be "assured of the rightness of our cause and confident of the victories to come." If we are assured of the rightness of our cause — and if we act accordingly — then we can indeed be confident of those victories. If not, we are in for a long and ultimately fruitless struggle. Which will it be? The evidence to date is ominously mixed. But one thing is clear: America's hope of victory depends on Americans' willingness to fight two wars: one against those responsible for the hideous attack against us, and another against the moral uncertainties that would prevent our leaders from effectively combating the external enemy. Stephen Siek, Professor of Music at Wittenberg University, and Tore Boeckmann are senior writers for the Ayn Rand Institute in Marina del Rey, Calif. The Institute promotes the philosophy of Ayn Rand, author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. To which I say HEAR!!, HEAR!!