Michael Walsh: Shrugging at Terror
[Michael Walsh, a former Time associate editor, is the author (as David Kahane) of "Rules for Radical Conservatives."]
In the earliest days of the republic, President Thomas Jefferson sent the fledgling US Navy to Tripoli in response to acts of brigandage. After years of campaigning, including some serious setbacks, US forces defeated the pirates at sea and sent the Marines ashore. The pasha of Tripoli, used to receiving ransom instead of fixed bayonets, sued for peace.
In 1904, Teddy Roosevelt was outraged by the kidnapping of Ion Perdicaris and his son by a bandit called the Raisuli. With the war cry, "Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead!" TR sent the military to force the release of the Greek-American expatriate -- and cruised to victory in the presidential election later that year.
In April, 1986, the La Belle disco in Berlin was bombed, killing two US servicemen and wounding more than 50 others, at the behest of Libya's Moammar Khadafy. The atrocity came less than a year after the Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad hijackers of TWA flight 847 singled out an American sailor named Robert Stethem for torture and murder, then threw his body thrown onto the tarmac in Beirut. Realizing that it could no longer be open season on US military personnel abroad, President Ronald Reagan responded to the Berlin attack by bombing Tripoli and Benghazi a couple of weeks later.
In the decades since, America has allowed itself to be hamstrung by the asymmetric nature of radical Islam's war against the West. Its adherents move easily from country to country, apparently secure in their membership in the ummah, or worldwide communion of Muslims. Western nation-states have been largely unable to hold a single "nation" responsible in the court of international law.
Unless and until we can come up with the proper military and political response to such outrages -- perhaps by ramping up our covert-ops missions -- we are going to lose more of our fellow citizens to crimes of opportunity like Frankfurt. As we saw in the run-up to 9/11, unanswered provocations can have the gravest consequences. Americans want more than vague promises to "bring them to justice." They want results.
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Read entire article at NY Post
In the earliest days of the republic, President Thomas Jefferson sent the fledgling US Navy to Tripoli in response to acts of brigandage. After years of campaigning, including some serious setbacks, US forces defeated the pirates at sea and sent the Marines ashore. The pasha of Tripoli, used to receiving ransom instead of fixed bayonets, sued for peace.
In 1904, Teddy Roosevelt was outraged by the kidnapping of Ion Perdicaris and his son by a bandit called the Raisuli. With the war cry, "Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead!" TR sent the military to force the release of the Greek-American expatriate -- and cruised to victory in the presidential election later that year.
In April, 1986, the La Belle disco in Berlin was bombed, killing two US servicemen and wounding more than 50 others, at the behest of Libya's Moammar Khadafy. The atrocity came less than a year after the Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad hijackers of TWA flight 847 singled out an American sailor named Robert Stethem for torture and murder, then threw his body thrown onto the tarmac in Beirut. Realizing that it could no longer be open season on US military personnel abroad, President Ronald Reagan responded to the Berlin attack by bombing Tripoli and Benghazi a couple of weeks later.
In the decades since, America has allowed itself to be hamstrung by the asymmetric nature of radical Islam's war against the West. Its adherents move easily from country to country, apparently secure in their membership in the ummah, or worldwide communion of Muslims. Western nation-states have been largely unable to hold a single "nation" responsible in the court of international law.
Unless and until we can come up with the proper military and political response to such outrages -- perhaps by ramping up our covert-ops missions -- we are going to lose more of our fellow citizens to crimes of opportunity like Frankfurt. As we saw in the run-up to 9/11, unanswered provocations can have the gravest consequences. Americans want more than vague promises to "bring them to justice." They want results.
Read more: