At war for 23 years and too stupid to know it.

I recently got this in my email, and thought some of you out there might appreciate it. Some of you might even NEED to see it...

U.S. 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) 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 23
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 downsized/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 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 gates 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 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 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 Kohlrabi 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
since1979.

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 23 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.

Please forward this 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.