Ehrlich on Washington column, October 21, 2001

с MEWS FROM Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. Second Congressional District of Maryland 1 407 York Rood, Suit* 304 LurtvorvilU, Morylond 2 1 093 315 Cannon Hovm Office Building Wellington, D.C. 20515 EHRLICH ON WASHINGTON Week of October 2 1 , 200 1 By Congressman Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. The Few, The Shameless In recent weeks, with the ruins of Lower Manhattan and the Pentagon still smoldering, a small clique of pacifists have demanded that the Bush Administration lay down its arms in Afghanistan and give Osama bin Laden the right to justice according to international law. In The Washington Post, Courtland Milloy went so far as to compare Americans to the mafia, while novelist Barbara Kingsolver heaped insults on our “ridiculous little flag of hope,” the Stars and Stripes, calling it the symbol of “intimidation, censorship, violence, bigotry, sexism, homophobia and shoving the Constitution through a paper shredder.” Even Congresswomen Cynthia McKinney stated that, by defending ourselves with military action, “we become all that we abhor.” Remarkably, these people think a weaker, more judicious approach to terrorism will ensure your safety and mine. Kingsolver, Milloy, and their delusional cohorts fail to realize the repercussions of their demands. Recent history teaches us what happens when America treats terrorism merely as a crime to be investigated, rather than a war to be ended: After the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, which killed six and injured 1,000, President Clinton promised that those responsible would be brought to justice. He promised the same after the 1995 bombing in Saudi Arabia, which killed five U.S. military personnel; and after the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia, which killed 19 and injured 200 U.S. military personnel; and after the 1998 bombing of U.S. embassies in Africa, which killed 224 and injured 5,000; and after the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, which killed 17 and injured 39 U.S. sailors. For eight years, terrorists like Osama bin Laden became more and more emboldened with each empty threat posed by the United States. Had America pursued a stronger course of action, bin Laden and his A1 Qaeda network might have been a distant memory by now. Furthermore, we might have prevented the September 1 1 attacks which ended or altered tens of thousands of lives.