The current situation regarding what to do with Yasser Arafat (do we exile him or kill him?) brings to mind the adage coined by Douglas MacArthur: “Old Soldiers never die, they simply fade away.” Only problem is, Yasser Arafat is not a soldier, much less a statesman...he’s a terrorist! Always has been, always will be. Call a spade a spade.
Let me share with you an e-mail response I sent last December to a former friend who happens to be Palestinian and teaches University in the United Arab Emirates (gee, how come he isn’t strapping on explosives up on the front line?). Marwan decided to include me on his list for more BS propaganda...complete with photos...about the “cruelties of the Israeli occupiers.” I lost the original e-mail, but here’s my response to him:
I’m sorry that we have to disagree on this issue. I’m sorry that the Palestinians chose to dance in the streets of the West Bank and Gaza on 9/11. I’m sorry the Palestinians don’t realize that it isn’t the Israelis who are the problem...but the Arab countries themselves in launching four wars in a fifty-year period and losing them all, then leaving the Palestinians high and dry and living off United Nations handouts. I’m sorry to see the Palestinians still choose to rely on the failed leadership of an Egyptian-born thug named Yasser Arafat. Worst of all, I’m sorry that the Palestinians choose to deliberately target civilians with their homicidal bombers and then have the cajones to call themselves “freedom fighters”...there’s a big difference between that conduct of warfare and the standard conduct where rebels would target only the military, and occasionally hit innocent bystanders with much terrible regret.
Why can I say this? I lived in Asmara, Ethiopia 30 years ago (Asmara is now, of course, the capital of Eritrea) and saw and experienced for myself what civil war is all about, and how it affects the people who live there. I couldn’t go anywhere outside the city on good days, and had to stay on base on the bad days. It made me damn glad I was born American and I appreciate and value my freedom all the more!
I personally took these photos when my girlfriend and I visited New York City two weeks ago. Seeing it for myself only steeled my beliefs about terrorists, and it is this: We will come for you...no matter how long it takes.
I stand with Israel...and I’m not sorry to say it either.
I hope your family is doing OK though....
The photos I sent him were of Ground Zero and the Sphere (which survived the attack). But at least I was civil with the guy. Now you know where I stand.
