Where I Stand — Mike O’Callaghan: This time let’s finish the job

Friday, Oct. 12, 2001 | 4:25 a.m.

THE WHINING VOICE I heard on the radio Tuesday morning was complaining about four innocent civilians being killed by American bombs. "This is American terrorism," according to the protester, who was upset about the deaths of Afghan security guards for a U.N. mine clearing program. They were sleeping in a building near a Taliban radio transmission tower that was destined to be destroyed to protect incoming U.S. fighter and bomber crews.

I wanted to yell at the radio and tell the peace-at-any-cost complainer that, "No, this isn't terrorism, stupid! Terrorism is flying a civilian airliner full of innocent people into a building with the intent to kill all of the passengers and the occupants of the building." That's terrorism of the worst kind. Yes, almost 6,000 innocent and unsuspecting people died at the hands of terrorists.

Do you want to talk about sheer terror? Then think about the passengers on four airliners who watched the killing of crew members knowing that they also were going to die in a matter of minutes.

How about giving some thought to the secretary and her fellow workers who kissed their mates goodbye minutes before and were now being strangled by the smoke flowing into their office?

Let's give some thought to those who survived the airplane crashing into their office and, when trying to escape, were crushed by the ceiling coming down on them and driving their bodies 100 floors downward into the rubble below.

Real terror can be in the hearts of the people who know and understand danger but still face it because duty calls. The firemen going into the Twin Towers knew exactly what was happening when the buildings began to fold and collapse. They knew the sounds of death, but faced it trying to save others.

Let's not forget about the terror felt by Israeli children on the way to school or their brothers and sisters dancing in a disco, when suddenly the intestines and blood of the person beside them is soaking through their clothes.

Can you imagine the terror felt by the American woman who watched her wheel-chair-bound husband pushed over the side of a cruise ship? As bad as she must have felt, just think about the victim who was helpless as the terrorist made fun of him before sending the crippled man to his death.

These acts causing terror can be listed to fill the entire newspaper, and until recent weeks little has been done about them. Finally, the American people said that enough is enough, and the heart of at least one evil empire is being struck. It will take more strikes at even more nests of terrorists before the job is complete or at least has sent the message that terrorists, and those who support them, must pay a price.

The U.S. military strikes in Baghdad during the Gulf War and last week in Afghanistan have been carefully directed toward targets that are a military threat. There have been errors made and civilians have died. None of them have been chosen targets, but rather were unfortunate accidents that come with war. There never has been a good war, but there have been wars of necessity and taking on the killers we call terrorists is certainly a just war.

Sure, I feel bad about any loss of innocent life, because it's unfair to the victims and all who love them. Right now we are engaged in an activity to stop those who have no regard for the lives of others. This, on our part, isn't an act of terrorism despite what the whiner on the radio tells people. I won't be happy until those cells of terrorists around the world and governments that support them feel real terror when they hear that the U.S. is sending somebody to get them. Then after they have felt this terror I want them dead, so they are no longer a threat to my family and the American way of life.

Those who want to protest our actions seeking out and killing killers have the privilege to whine and complain in our country. On the other hand, I have the right to ignore them and pray that our country completes the job it has started. We didn't finish the Gulf War because President George Bush did listen to the whiners and complainers.

archive