GUEST OPINION

THIS AIN’T ABOUT OIL: IT’S ABOUT OUR SURVIVAL 

            In the early-1970’s I was teaching a karate class and was sparring with a fellow black belt who threw a blind back-kick and Crack! You could hear my nose break like a dry stick in a campfire. Not wanting to make him feel bad, and trying very hard not to act like a sissy, I ran in the bathroom, shoved toilet paper up each nostril, returned, and continued sparring. Mere minutes later. . . Crack! Another blind kick went through my guard, and my nose broke in a different spot. I awoke with a bag of ice on my bloody face and a number of concerned faces staring down at me on the floor. That is exactly how I feel today.

            I have kept my mouth shut through the whole Cindy Sheehan debacle, where she trounced on the legacy of her brave, noble son to push her liberal agenda. I have quietly listened to the idiocy of some proudly proclaiming, “I totally support our troops, but not that lying George W. Bush, or the illegal war,” which to me is exactly the same as saying, “Yea Team! Score that T.D.!  Boo, Coach! I hope your quarterback gets sacked, however I do so like him and the other players and totally support them, but not you. Yea team! I cheer for them, but I hope you lose, Coach!” That kind of reasoning is very hard, actually impossible, for me to understand.  

            We all need ice bags on our faces right now. The stupidity must stop now if we are to survive. Our media and our politicians must start putting America first, not political parties, not ratings.

            In the recently captured and translated 14-page letter from the al-Qaeda’s number two leader, al-Zawahiri, who is Usama bin Laden’s right hand man, written to the al-Qaeda’s rising star and head of insurgent forces in Iraq al-Zarqawi; al-Zawahiri states that more than half the struggle is taking place “in the battlefield of the media.” (To read the 14-page translation click here: http://www.donbendell.com/al-Zawahiri.html ) Think of those words: “in the battlefield of the media half the battle is being fought.” Just think about how self-righteous newscasters and network producers are allowing themselves to be used by the enemy, on a daily basis. What is hilarious is that they see themselves as “cutting edge.” What a joke: They are as cutting edge as a knife made out of wet spaghetti.

The American news media, as a whole, plays right into the enemy’s hands on a consistent daily basis, while we are in immediate danger of much worse than September 11, 2001.       

The letter speaks about continuing the fight in Iraq after the Americans are “defeated and expelled.” That is right, the al-Qaeda expects to “defeat and expel” us from Iraq, and then extend the jihad, or holy war, to surrounding countries and set up a caliphate in Iraq. Al-Zawahiri speaks about Iraq being the spiritual fighting grounds for this great war and talks about the centrality of the War in Iraq for the global jihad and making it clear this goes far beyond oil. He speaks about winning hearts and minds there, albeit temporarily until they are in total control, and the need to fight politically as well as militarily.

            There are some Monday morning quarterbacks who keep calling this a war for oil,  a war based on lies, but the only lie here would be continuing to call ourselves the greatest nation on earth, if President Bush and our leaders were stupid enough to listen to them, or listen to the braying and naysaying of the snorting, prancing 2008 Presidential contenders who recently started banging their antlers on trees. Political ambition before nation. Self before societal survival. If our commander-in-chief didn’t stand firm, we would be tucking our collectives tails and running without realizing we are actually winning the fight. The critical thing is that we must win. Losing (the actual term for withdrawing) is not an option. This is not at all about oil or money to the al-Qaeda. It is a total passion and life and death commitment to destroy us and destroy Israel. It is not only biblical. The fanatical Muslim jihadists have stacks and stacks of money from oil, but are five hundred to one thousand years behind us in development of their society. They hate us! They hate the ground we walk on, and they hate most of what we stand for.  Women are mere chattel in their society with no rights, so what do much of our media do? They portray them as the victims and our military as the scoundrels. Our media does not show us all the great successes we are having in Iraq, reported by so many soldiers there. But simple common sense should rule here. Just observing Iraq’s death-defying elections alone should make it so obvious, or even their new living constitution patterned after our own incredible historic masterpiece, the U.S. Constitution. The mindset so obvious in the wording of al-Zawahiri’s letter alone should scare the living hell out of all of us, but it doesn’t. We don’t show 9-11 anymore on TV to remind us what this is really all about. Our fragile little pampered children might get traumatized. We are too busy trying to prove to the world that we don’t hate all Muslims, that we are not homophobic, that we won’t destroy the blue skies with our SUV’s belching dragon fire, that conservatives are all greedy crooks and hate anyone who is poor, and that we can all just hold hands, think sweet thoughts, and sing the theme song from MISTER ROGERS NEIGHBORHOOD and all will be right with our self-created, idealistic, TV-inspired world.

            This is all out war to them, and they want us all dead, period. Usama bin Laden’s number one goal in the world, from captured documents and testimony of al-Qaeda fighters is to “create a new Hiroshima by destroying two American cities with nuclear bombs at the same time.” He even wants to do it in daylight hours to create more terror. Many intelligence reports state that the al-Qaeda has purchased a number of backpack nuclear bombs, nuclear mines, and artillery rounds left behind by the former USSR in Afghanistan. Some reports state that some are already smuggled into the US and being readied for the sneak attack. Further, that it will be in cities with large Jewish populations, such as New York City.

            How long are we going to go overboard trying to be politically correct and appease the feelings of everyone but our frightened dedicated loyal citizens? We not only need to get totally behind the team, we need to ask the coach how we can help the team win, and we need to tell the announcer to quit bending over backwards fawning all over the visitor team. If we do not fight them, they will kill us anyway while we cower, so I don’t care if we have to fight them in Iraq, Wal Mart’s parking lot, or at Beverly Hills High School stadium. We must prevail or they will. It is as simple as that.

In World War II, we stopped being democrats, independents, and republicans, and again became the United States of “Americans.”  We can do that again; neighbor, by simply getting our priorities in order, such as survival. The last four letters of American are “I can,” not “I can’t.” Four years after 9-11 we have been lulled back into complacency and the insanity of trying to please everybody with a complaint except the majority.

Speak up, write your local newspaper, call talk shows, write your congressmen, and be heard.  We don’t need to be the Moral Majority. We need to be the Oral Majority. In other words, “Shout!” We can be Victims or we can be Victors. It is up to each of us, and the time is now, America. As Elvis sang, “It’s now or never.”

Blessings, Don Bendell