JFKerry reportedly told Geraldo at the Clinton Lie-bearing that the bin Laden videotape cost him the election by reminding people of the terrorism threat. OK, let's assume that tens of thousands of people in Ohio alone had forgotten about the terrorism threat and were reminded to the point of switching their votes. If so, what it reminded them is that Osama is now reduced to attacking by VHS rather than with enriched uranium. It reminded them that we are winning the war on terrorism under Bush's leadership. And it reminded me that where you cannot be loved, you must be feared. Fear of bunker-busting bombs is a powerful motivator, and I reckon a disruptive influence on the management of high-impact terrorism plots. I read the following article right after 9/11 and it remains the final word on the subject.
(former Army Lt. Col. Ralph Peters, in Fast Company, Oct 2001 issue)
Where you cannot be loved, you must be feared.
September 11 was a monstrous act for which we must take revenge. Politically, President Bush can't say that we're going to take revenge on these guys, but that's what we're going to do. And we need to because it's psychologically important. Revenge is necessary sometimes when the acts committed against you are so hideous.
America fights for abstract values. Increasingly, our enemies fight for God and revenge. If we want to tamp down terrorism to the smallest level, we have to make a brutal example of Al Qaeda, everybody in it, and every network related to it. We have to be ready to tear down one or more governments that support terrorism. If we aren't willing to make a severe example of the guilty, we will only encourage them. It's a harsh doctrine, and I know it sounds cold, but if you aren't willing to put the fear of the United States into all the would-be supporters of terrorism -- if you're not willing to make them afraid of you -- this problem is going to go on forever.
When it comes down to it, this is the attitude more Americans want at the helm. Americans like to saddle up and shoot bad guys, and so far no amount of liberal education has been able to beat that out of us.
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