Seen this e-mail? "When WWIII Started"

[trof]

I received the "-------Original Message-----" below yesterday. I don't agree with most of his premise, but some uber-patriot decided that Captain Ouimette's message needed punching up a bit.
Not political my ass.
Here's my reply:

Someone has made some changes to Captain Dan Ouimette's speech and I don't think he'd like it.
You can read the original here:
http://www.americanfamilytraditions.com/america_needs_to_wake_up.htm

Just a few points.
1. It's generally accepted that any military action conducted during a president's first term is basically done with the apparatus and equipment passed on by his immediate predecessor. Carter's ill fated hostage rescue attempt was conducted with Nixon's military.

2. All of the events in the 80s happened under Reagan and Bush I. I'd be interested to hear the reply from their former administrations as to use of the snooze alarm.

3. Captain Ouimette did not mention either Bill Clinton or George Bush in his speech.
The last two paragraphs do not appear in the original work.

And the truth shall set you free.
trof

----- Original Message -----
When WWIII Started
A must read historical account of Terrorism against the US ~

This is not very long, but very informative You have to read the catalogue of events in this brief piece. Then, ask yourself how anyone can take the position that all we have to do is bring our troops home from Iraq, sit back, reset the snooze alarm, go back to sleep, and no one will ever bother us again. In case you missed it, World War III began in November 1979... that alarm has been ringing for years

US Navy Captain Ouimette is the Executive Officer at Naval Air Station, Pensacola, Florida. Here is a copy of the speech he gave last month. It is an accurate account of why we are in so much trouble today and why this action is so necessary.

AMERICA NEEDS TO WAKE UP!

That's what we think we heard on the 11th of September 2001 (When more than 3,000 Americans were killed -AD) and maybe it was, but I think it should have been "Get Out of Bed!" In fact, I think the alarm clock has been buzzing since 1979 and we have continued to hit the snooze button and roll over for a few more minutes of peaceful sleep since then.

It was a cool fall day in November 1979 in a country going through a religious and political upheaval when a group of Iranian students attacked and seized the American Embassy in Tehran. This seizure was an outright attack on American soil; it was an attack that held the world's most powerful country hostage and paralyzed a Presidency. The attack on this sovereign U. S. embassy set the stage for events to follow for the next 25 years.

America was still reeling from the aftermath of the Vietnam experience and had a serious threat from the Soviet Union when then, President Carter, had to do something. He chose to conduct a clandestine raid in the desert. The ill-fated mission ended in ruin, but stood as a symbol of America's inability to deal with terrorism.

America's military had been decimated and down sized/right sized since the end of the Vietnam War. A poorly trained, poorly equipped and poorly organized military was called on to execute a complex mission that was doomed from the start.

Shortly after the Tehran experience, Americans began to be kidnapped and killed throughout the Middle East. America could do little to protect her citizens living and working abroad. The attacks against US soil continued.

In April of 1983 a large vehicle packed with high explosives was driven into the US Embassy compound in Beirut When it explodes, it kills 63 people. The alarm went off again and America hit the Snooze Button once more.

Then just six short months later in 1983 a large truck heavily laden down with over 2500 pounds of TNT smashed through the main gate of the US Marine Corps headquarters in Beirut and 241 US servicemen are killed. America mourns her dead and hit the Snooze Button once more.

Two months later in December 1983, another truck loaded with explosives is driven into the US Embassy in Kuwait, and America continues her slumber.

The following year, in September 1984, another van was driven into the gate of the US Embassy in Beirut and America slept.

Soon the terrorism spreads to Europe. In April 1985 a bomb explodes in a restaurant frequented by US soldiers in Madrid.

Then in August 1985 a Volkswagen loaded with explosives is driven into the main gate of the US Air Force Base at Rhein-Main, 22 are killed and the snooze alarm is buzzing louder and louder as US interests are continually attacked.

Fifty-nine days later in 1985 a cruise ship, the Achille Lauro is hijacked and we watched as an American in a wheelchair is singled out of the passenger list and executed.

The terrorists then shift their tactics to bombing civilian airliners when they bomb TWA Flight 840 in April of


1986 that killed 4 and the most tragic bombing, Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, killing 259.

Clinton treated these terrorist acts as crimes; in fact we are still trying to bring these people to trial. These are acts of war.

The wake up alarm is getting louder and louder.

The terrorists decide to bring the fight to America. In January 1993, two CIA agents are shot and killed as they enter CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

The following month, February 1993, a group of terrorists are arrested after a rented van packed with explosives is driven into the underground parking garage of the World Trade Center in New York City. Six people are killed and over 1000 are injured. Still this is a crime and not an act of war? The Snooze alarm is depressed again.

Then in November 1995 a car bomb explodes at a US military complex in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia killing seven service men and women.

A few months later in June of 1996, another truck bomb explodes only 35 yards from the US military compound in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. It destroys the Khobar Towers, a US Air Force barracks, killing 19 and injuring over 500. The terrorists are getting braver and smarter as they see that America does not respond decisively.

They move to coordinate their attacks in a simultaneous attack on two US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.. These attacks were planned with precision. They kill 224. America responds with cruise missile attacks and goes back to sleep.

The USS Cole was docked in the port of Aden, Yemen for refueling on 12 October 2000, when a small craft pulled along side the ship and exploded killing 17 US Navy Sailors. Attacking a US War Ship is an act of war, but we sent the FBI to investigate the crime and went back to sleep.

And of course you know the events of 11 September 2001. Most Americans think this was the first attack against US soil or in America. How wrong they are. America has been under a constant attack since 1979 and we chose to hit the snooze alarm and roll over and go back to sleep.

In the news lately we have seen lots of finger pointing from every high officials in government over what they knew and what they didn't know. But if you've read the papers and paid a little attention I think you can see exactly what they knew. You don't have to be in the FBI or CIA or on the National Security Council to see the pattern that has been developing since 1979.

The President is right on when he says we are engaged in a war. I think we have been in a war for the past 25 years and it will continue until we as a people decide enough is enough. America needs to "Get out of Bed" and act decisively now. America has been changed forever.. We have to be ready to pay the price and make the sacrifice to ensure our way of life continues. We cannot afford to keep hitting the snooze button again and again and roll over and go back to sleep.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Admiral Yamamoto said "... it seems all we have done is awakened a sleeping giant." This is the message we need to disseminate to terrorists around the world.

Support Our Troops and support President Bush for having the courage, political or militarily, to address what so many who preceded him didn't have the backbone to do, both Democrat and Republican. This is not a political thing to be hashed over in an election year this is an AMERICAN thing. This is about our Freedom and the Freedom of our children in years to come.

If you believe in this please forward it to as many people as you can especially to the young people and all those who dozed off in history class and who seem so quick to protest such a necessary military action. If you don't believe it, just delete it and go back to sleep.

[NativeTexan]

1. He fails to point out

He fails to point out that the GLORIOUS OVERLORD OF TURDBLOSSOM invaded the WRONG DAMNED COUNTRY!!!

[MindPilot]

4. The speech is from February '03

So they hadn't officially invaded the wrong damned country yet.

Supposedly Oliver North was the commander on that mission and sabotaged it.:tinfoilhat: So it's interesting the author refers to the failed Iranian Hostage mission as a pivotal event.

Edit spelling

[dajoki]

2. are we supposed to attack terrorists in every country...

in the world when we can't protect our own borders? but i agree we were asleep at the wheel, especially this admin.:wtf:

[Kerrytravelers]

3. Gotta just love rethug revisionist history. /nft/

[Vickers]

5. WE SHOULD HAVE ATTACKED FLORIDA!!!!!

:crazy::crazy::crazy::crazy::crazy::crazy::crazy:

95% of the "ATTACK NOW!" folks have never strapped on combat boots.

[Mythsaje]

6. What people like this don't seem to get

is that when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

Military mind? Military solution.

Except you can't fight a war against a world-wide criminal empire. It just doesn't work that way. There's a big difference between standing toe to toe with another uniformed foe and dealing with people who look like everyone else.

This is why insurgencies WIN.

You HAVE to treat terrorism as a criminal act, and prosecute these people on the world stage, or all you can possibly do is make the problem worse.

See Iraq for illustration.

Oxymoron (an Ox AND a Moron) Hard at Work.

[wli]

8. "military mind, military solution" isn't quite what happened

A fair chunk of the military advised against these shenanigans on the basis of it being poor strategy. I also appear to recall (former?) military planners coming out and saying it was some form of naive geopolitics (with some additional discussion implying it was doomed to failure).

i.e. for whatever ends (right or wrong) they are strategists, and they can spot bad strategy and advise better (even in wars of aggression).

[Mythsaje]

9. Of course,

not all of the military follows this line of thinking... It's just THIS guy's particular problem.

[trof]

10. Bingo! And thanks.

Well put.

[Muddy Waters Guitar]

7. The Iranians moved in 1979 b/c we'd deposed Mossadegh in 1953

This is classic right-wing propaganda techniques in action, buttressed by a very selective telling of history. Yes, this nightmarish battle with Islamist terrorism and guerrillas indeed got its start in many ways in 1979, but what this dumbass pamphleteer conveniently leaves out, is that the Iranians were hardly unprovoked. In 1953, Iran's *popularly elected* (and popular) prime minister, Mohammed Mossadegh, had decided that Iran's oil revenues should, like, go to the Iranian people, rather than deluded British imperialists who'd been seizing the revenue through their front companies.

Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of Britain at the time and in one of his less-than-fine moments (he had quite a few others), couldn't bear this and pushed the US CIA, under Allen Dulles, with the help of Kermit Roosevelt, to depose Mossadegh and replace him with the ruthless, bloodthirsty, corrupt shah Pahlevi. Funny that Bush and the neocons talk about how they're trying to bring democracy to the Middle East, since the US was determined to *ruin* a thriving Mideast democracy in Iran when it challenged Anglo-American oil interests. Of course the Iranians were going to be rather irate about that, and strike back when availed the opportunity.

This wasn't the first time the British and US had screwed over the people of the Middle East to suit their own commercial interests. Franklin Roosevelt himself, apparently forgetting the famous FDR anti-imperialist creed, nonetheless laid out a plan late in WWII for the US and Britain to maintain effective control over the Middle Eastern oil fields in the 1940s. And of course, there is the ultimate betrayal by Britain and France of the Mideast Arabs after WWI. After supporting Arab rebellions against the Ottoman Empire (that whole Lawrence of Arabia thing) and promising the Arab people their freedom after 1918, the British and French instead treacherously divided up the Middle East among themselves, as colonial powers. Winston Churchill, in one of his other less-than-fine moments, even pushed to terror-bomb Iraq (along with that asshole, Arthur Bomber Harris) with poison gas in the 1920s to stop a rebellion there. The British were of course humiliated and defeated in Iraq, Egypt and Aden after WWII, while the French were humiliated in Algeria and also at Suez; however, one can understand why Middle Easterners have been more than a little mistrustful of the intentions of Western powers. They've been screwed over quite a few times before by them.