Do We Have The Stomach To Track Down Real Terrorists?

September 11, 2002

The commemoration on the first anniversary of September 11 th has come and gone.   Echoes of that awful day still ring in our heads.   The innocent lives lost.   The utter carnage.   The promises to hunt down the killers and bring them to justice . . . or bring justice to them.

 

I still remember the words of President Bush vowing “if you harbor a terrorist, if you feed a terrorist, if you hide a terrorist, you, too, are as guilty as a terrorist” adding “we're going to be steady and relentless until we achieve the objective of getting the al Qaeda killers and bringing them to justice.”   Now, one year after the fact, we are being selective in our application of that solemn promise.  

 

Shortly after our soldiers began searching cave-to-cave for remnants of the Taliban, reports began filtering back to the U.S. that dead Chinese advisors were being found alongside the dead Taliban.   Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld made mention in a live press conference en route to the area that large caches of Chinese munitions had been found.   Very few details, if any, made it into the mainstream press.

 

Just before the first anniversary of September 11 th we learned from a Pakistani newspaper that Chinese officials were still meeting with top leaders of al Qaeda.   The insidious relationship between the communist Chinese and the Arab terrorists continues, yet we turn a blind eye.   Why?   Because we, Republicans and Democrats alike, have placed profit before principle.   In our quest for access to a market numbering a billion plus we have decided that certain indiscretions can be ignored.   In order to stock our shelves with the fruits of near-slave labor at a cheap price we have compromised the security of our nation and we have compromised our very basic values that we claim to hold dear.

 

Think of the hypocrisy.   Cuba, a small, insignificant country, is prohibited from trading with us because its regime is viewed as evil and oppressive yet they pale in comparison to the brutality of the Red Chinese.   The only difference between the two is the sheer volume of goods exported by China and their lucrative domestic market.   Forced abortions, child labor used to manufacture goods for the state, imprisonment or execution for merely uttering the word ‘freedom.'   These are the hallmarks of one of our largest trading partners and we pretend as though they were any other nation.  

 

Many points in our body politic are debatable but one is undeniable: Oppression should not be fueled by American capitalism.   As the beacon of freedom to the world we should never waiver when it comes to basic human rights, the rights granted to us by God and protected by our Constitution.

 

Ambition is what has made this country great.   Unbridled ambition turns to greed and greed has no conscience.   Think about it the next time you order a Happy Meal for your child and turn the toy over to see its origin.   Think of it the next time you're in Wal Mart or any other store that carries a large number of items from this despotic regime.   Try to find something not made in China.   Although our government may placate this malevolent communist regime that doesn't mean we have to.   We hold the power of the purse.   We can pick and choose which items we carry home and which ones we leave on the shelf.   It's those left on the shelf that speak loudest to our resolve.   It's those we take home that speak loudest to our own compromise in the war on terrorism.   Happy shopping.