James Fox

The horrific example of international terrorism that destroyed thousands of lives and crumbled the World Trade Center sent the media and many freedom loving countries into a frenzy of beefing up security measures and coalescing plans for retaliation.

Our President publicly declared war on terrorism and any country that supports or harbors terrorists, and his popularity ratings rose to a record breaking 83%; indicating almost unanimous support of the public to the war on terrorism. And with the support of the international community, we embarked on our mission to avenge the deaths of over 3,000 innocent American citizens.

Since that time, in spite of our enormous success in toppling the Taliban regime and the destruction of many terrorist and their hiding places with few casualties to our own forces, our coalition of partners in the war effort have lost the stomach for vengeance and the will to defend their selves against these maniacs, and "We The People" have turned into a nation of mourners and sniveling victims instead of roaring and raging for further retaliation. Biblical law states; "An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth." Sounds very hard-nose doesn't it? It seems like an ancient recipe for harshness that modern society has long ago outgrown. Not so. Few passages in the Bible are as badly misunderstood as this one. The "eye for an eye" maxim is not about harshness; it's about proportional retribution.

We have 3,000 dead innocent victims, and by what I've witnessed since September 11, 2001 we have almost 300 million live sniveling victims. WHERE IS THAT OUTRAGE? The count is far from even. I'm sure there are nowhere near 3,000 dead terrorists and terrorist supporters. When we go on a yellow or orange alert and the media bombards us with dire predictions released by our government and we subsequently spend taxpayers money on beefed up security and an anxious public changes their daily routine, the Al-Qaeda wins. When a sick society takes time out of their normal lives and spends a fortune to commemorate a disaster brought about by a murderous gang of thugs who murder in the name of religion, now that is really sick.

Screw the United Nations, screw our coalition partners and screw those detractors here at home, we have a lot of terrorists and their supporters to kill. And I sincerely believe the last thing America needs is to become a perpetual anxiety society and do nothing in retaliation.

When I was a boy, terms like trauma were unheard of. After a disaster children were encouraged to forget about it and get on with their play. When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, there were no victims only casualties and enraged survivors. Our entire senior student body went in mass to the recruitment center and enlisted.

The general public supported the war effort and cheered the troops on as island by island they napalmed every enemy soldier out of caves and tunnels. When they had taken every island, they destroyed their cities.

There was no international outcry, no dissent or criticism on the home front - justice had been served, and the war was really over. That lesson in total annihilation served to detract and keep safe our people for 57 years. If we do not do the same thing to all terrorists, they will continue killing us for the next 57 years.