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http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/letters/sfl-pbmail771sep01,0,4208455.story?coll=sfla-news-letters
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This is WWIII, and a new kind of war
Richard H. Spencer
boca raton
Posted September 1 2004
Al-Qaida is avowedly the arm of Islam that is determined to destroy
the United States as a free nation and turn it into an Islamic nation.
We have now been under physical attack for 25 years, starting with our
embassy in Iran in 1979. We have been too tolerant given the attacks
that ran at five-year intervals, then shortened to four, two, and one.
In the 1930s the League of Nations frittered, and Neville Chamberlain
effectively said toss Hitler a bone and he'll be satisfied. Result:
World War II, with the thousands per day at times killed.
Today there is a huge hue and cry at 1,000-plus killed over a
three-year period. I mourn the dead, and have sat beside friends dying
along jungle trails. However, three times more were killed here in one
day by the al-Qaida terrorists. Let me put it in the vernacular,
people: They ain't going to go away with some small bone of a building
or two blown up. They exist worldwide, and we have to address them
wherever they exist. We are in a World War III, not of our seeking,
but which we must recognize for what it is, and the initiating source,
which is not us.
I doubt this is a war where huge masses of troops will be effective, a
la WWI and WWII, except in a few instances, but rather must be most
effectively fought with Special Forces-type units that can be
effective befriending local groups while fighting the aggressors, the
al-Qaida, which seem to often exist as relatively small cells. Some of
those cells obviously are here in our country, with representatives
moving in and out.
Yes, WWIII exists, has for 25 or more years, and we need to recognize
it for what it is and conduct our part very effectively.
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