by Ted Weaver                                                                                                        

6/30/2002

Finally, a course of action, but does it go far enough and soon enough?

Arafats approval ratings are just around 30-35% according to the latest polls. That is a very poor rating. But yet, he seems over-confident that he would win the election. Why is that?

After decades of all of the carnage and death at the hands of Arafat to his own people and others, he is still there. Why is that? Because he has built a very large controlling type of terror organization around himself for one and receives funding that sustains their operation from other terrorist organizations as well as rogue states and yes, what we Americans can only sometimes call an ally like Saudi Arabia or Egypt.

There is no way that fair elections can take place as long as there are large terrorist organizations operating in the Palestinian area's. Presently, the terrorist organizations use intimidation to control the masses. There are militants that shake down respectable business owners (for money) on a weekly or whatever basis in Palestinian controlled area's. Under conditions like this, there cannot be any free and fair elections. How could we expect to see reasonable and respectable Palestinian citizens to come forth to lead under circumstances like this?

A large segment of the Palestinians are brought into this world being brainwashed to hate Jews. At a very early age they are taught that the Jewish are their enemies. The so-called scholars (inciters) of the Muslim religion interpret (twist and turn) the teachings of the Koran to excuse and promote the act of killing innocent or defenseless civilians at the behest of their god (Allahs) wishes or commands.

There is a large segment of these people that are very poor and desperate and isolated within their surroundings. They don't get much accurate outside news except for what their sometimes terrorist indoctrinated religious leaders or the terrorist themselves tell them. If someone would give them a dollar and tell them to vote for Arafat they probably would. How do we educate these people in 6 months by teaching them what it could be like if they were to vote out Arafat and rid themselves of terrorism and its practitioners.

What about the state sponsors of terrorism like Iraq. Surely, they will attempt to intervene and interfere in any way that they can to see that their puppet stays in power. The terrorist organizations Hamas, Hezbollah and AI Queda are all factors in this and will have to be dealt with in some way too.

The way I see it is, this is going to take one helluva production and the clock is ticking. If we're going to do this thing, then lets get on with it and go the whole way.. If we are going to take a back seat to this, then the answer is simply elementary , Arafat will be re-elected for all of the above and more reasons and the status quo will continue along with the terrorism.

In my own opinion, I would give the above a slightly better than fifty percent chance of success. Again in my own opinion, I would opt for the expulsion of Arafat along with an operation to remove all terrorist cells and its operatives. This plan has a 90% chance of Success and most importantly, it physically removes and deals with the terrorist, unless someone lets them go to terrorize another day.

I could see where it could be possible for one to lose their focus on this war against terrorism, since these terrorist organizations consist of multi-national associations. What strikes me most odd, and I'm really having a hard time understanding why we don't hold Saudi Arabia more accountable than what we have. Its quite obvious that there is a large faction of Saudi nationals that want to harm the U.S. judging from the number of 9/11 hijackers that were from Saudi Arabia. Its also quite obvious that Bin Laden still has considerable influence in his homeland from which he was exiled from or whatever.

The terrorist made this very personal when they came onto our homeland and wreaked death and carnage. When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor the Admiral in charge of the Japanese fleet murmured to his staff -I fear all that we've done here today by attacking America was awaken a sleeping giant. I also fear that this will be the beginning of the end for Japan. How right he was, and this is the beginning of the end of all the terrorist organizations that exist anywhere in the world and all nations involved in 9/11. We won't lose our focus and will keep our eye on the ball.

President Bush is going to have his hands full keeping the economy strong and his focus on the terrorist anywhere they exist and I would really like to see the diplomatic avenues take a back seat and not become a distraction. Using diplomacy in dealing with terrorist is a win - Iose proposition. The terrorist win and we lose, as history has emphatically demonstrated. Case in point -Arafat!