Resolve!

By Tom DeWeese
web posted September 13, 2001

America is a different place today. That's good, because we
need to be. Many of our citizens were beginning to forget why
America is special. When asked where our wealth and high
standard of living came from, many would simply shrug their
shoulders and say, "was is not always so?"

Many Americans may have forgotten (or never were taught) that
such a wonderful life has a price---eternal vigilance. It means we
must revere our history and understand how we got to be the
greatest nation on earth. It means we stand for our liberties. It
means we fight back when attacked. It means we accept no
substitute for the right to live as we wish.

The right to live, free of fear from government oppression; free to
travel; free to associate with whom we choose; speak what we
wish is the key to our liberty. Few societies in the world share
that vision and understanding. Consequently few enjoy our
happy lives. Their lives are more drudgery than joy. Many find
that their government has reduced them to the statues of
meaningless pawn to be sacrificed when necessary. Many try to
escape to our paradise because they desire our precious breath
of life. Others seek to destroy us, perhaps to obliterate our
golden image from their jealous minds.

Hate is a powerful weapon. It can find ways to overcome even
the most awesome military power on earth. That was proven
with the horrible terrorist attacks in New York and Washington.
Americans were dumbfounded. How could such a thing happen
in this country? Why would they sacrifice their lives to kill
innocent people?

Instead of standing for our rights, we have pushed the problem
off to global diplomats to discuss how we should behave. We let
them dictate our response. We permit our leaders to sit in
endless meetings that legitimize hate mongering against us. We
obeyed the United Nations and stopped short of defeating
Saddam Hussein. We permit nations to harbor terrorists who
seek to do us harm. We sit by while our ships are attacked and
our embassies are bombed.

Then we naively apologize for our wealth and success. We just
want to be safe. We just want those nasty people to leave us
alone. Lack of resolve has made us weak and vulnerable to
attack.

Now the nation is coming together. Reawakened. Resolved to
fight. The nation's reaction must be swift, sure and complete. Our
leaders have a responsibility to resolve this issue and restore
national security. Terrorism must be wiped from the face of the
earth. Marginal or measured responses will only serve to anger
this enemy and guarantee more attacks. Terrorists everywhere
who make war on innocent men, women and children must be
obliterated. There must be no safe harbor for them.

Americans must once again be free to live in our own country or
walk down the street of any other nation without fear. That will
only happen when our enemies understand that to pick on an
American, any American, puts their own existence in jeopardy.

In fighting this war, however, the U.S. government has a
responsibility to its own people. Americans have proven time
and again that we are willing to temporarily sacrifice some of our
liberties in order to help bring about a permanent victory over
our enemies, but we should not be willing to sacrifice it forever.

It is the duty of the U.S. government to quickly find these
murderers and win this war they have been waging against us.
Then, just as quickly, the government must restore our free
society. We must not be forced to live in an armed camp of
surveillance cameras, metal detectors, identification papers, strip
searches, bank account surveillance and massive government
data banks under the excuse of protecting us.

Living in that sort of world means the terrorists have won. Only
when Americans once again resolve to live in a totally free
society without fear of hijacking, kidnapping and murder will
America be able to claim victory over terrorism and again stand
as the beacon of freedom for the world

Tom DeWeese is the publisher/editor of The DeWeese Report,
a monthly newsletter, and president of the American Policy
Center, an activist, grassroots think tank headquartered in
Warrenton, Virginia. The Center maintains a website at
www.americanpolicy.org. (c) Tom DeWeese, 2001.

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