I have been watching all of the specials on 9-11 and I'm not sure how to put it in perspective. Most of the people around me and in most of the US, for that matter, have had limited personal contact with the world outside of the United States, so, of course, for them, this was the most horrendous thing that has happened since WWII, and I am not for one minute arguing that it wasn't a horrible, horrible thing.
But if I were to ask you to compare that attack with the number of rockets and mortars that were fired over the border into Israel by terrorists between 2001 and today (more than 9330) (and that doesn't count other types of terrorist attacks by armed gunmen, knife wielding men, suicide bombers and terrorists driving their cars deliberately into innocent civilians), there is no comparison.
Yes, more people were killed on 9-11 at one time than those killed in Israel, but the percentage of the Israeli population killed by terrorists since 2001 is far greater than the percentage killed in the United States. Just last month alone, eighteen people were killed in terrorist attacks in Israel.
Just today in Jerusalem, members of 13 terrorist cells were arrested. They had intended to detonate a bomb on a bus or at a shopping mall.
You had better believe that if the United States had even one rocket come across its borders, there would be instant retaliation, and no one would say boo about restraint or make excuses for the terrorists or condemnations by the U.N. It would start a war just like it started the war against Iraq, (even if we attacked the wrong country), when we were attacked on 9-11. And, if this new terrorist threat materializes, G-d forbid, the whole country would be looking for blood and cheering the soldiers on as we hunted down the perpetrators, even if they came from our "ally", Pakistan.
Americans are not used to seeing the police clear an area and watch little robots go down the street and pick up some child's forgotten backpack because someone called in a possible bomb threat, nor are they searched every time they go into a restaurant, club, mall, supermarket or theater because of a terrorist threat. There is no conscription law in the U.S. and soldiers don't have to do reserve duty until they are 50 or 55 when they are discharged from the armed services. Americans don't have bomb shelters in almost every building, and certainly not in every neighborhood. Americans didn't have hear sirens wailing and run to their sealed rooms and put on gas masks when Saddam Hussein fired his missiles during the first Gulf War. Americans didn't have to build a wall around its embassy in Cairo to protect the people inside from rioting mobs. Americans don't have to worry about their children being blown up on the way to school, or at a pizza restaurant, or on a bus going to a resort town or killed by rockets. Most Americans don't even know a family who has had a son or daughter in uniform in the last 10 years.
When I lived in Israel, my children and I experienced all of those things. My children escaped terrorist bombs because they were on a later bus or at the pizza place on a different day. I knew people who were killed in terrorist attacks. They were neighbors and friends. My children were in our sealed room with me during the first Gulf War and my son, who is only 29, has fought in two wars and will be in the Reserves until he is 55. My daughter-in-law was also in the Army, as were her siblings and every one else in her family.
These are just a couple of examples of what life is like in the U.S. compared to life in Israel.
If the US doesn't stand behind its only real ally in the Middle East, these things could happen here.
Don't say I didn't warn you!
No comments:
Post a Comment