Jewish World Review Oct. 4, 2001 / 17 Tishrei, 5762

Greg Crosby

Greg Crosby
JWR's Pundits
World Editorial
Cartoon Showcase

Mallard Fillmore

Michael Barone
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Don Feder
Suzanne Fields
Paul Greenberg
Bob Greene
Betsy Hart
Nat Hentoff
David Horowitz
Marianne Jennings
Michael Kelly
Mort Kondracke
Ch. Krauthammer
Lawrence Kudlow
Dr. Laura
John Leo
David Limbaugh
Michelle Malkin
Chris Matthews
Michael Medved
MUGGER
Kathleen Parker
Wes Pruden
Sam Schulman
Amity Shlaes
Tony Snow
Thomas Sowell
Cal Thomas
Jonathan S. Tobin
Ben Wattenberg
George Will
Bruce Williams
Walter Williams
Mort Zuckerman

Consumer Reports

Go ahead, Phil Donahue, tell Mullah Mohammed Omar to "give peace a chance"

http://www.jewishworldreview.com -- IT'S been three weeks now. Three weeks since the devastating Arab terrorist attacks on Washington and New York killed about seven thousand people. Three weeks since war was declared on The United States of America. Three weeks of Americans crying. Three weeks of memorial services. Three weeks of American outrage. Three weeks of heroic rescue efforts in the rubble of what was once The World Trade Center. Three weeks of burying our dead. Three weeks of raising money for the victims. Three weeks of "having patience" as our president has requested. Three weeks of understanding that not all people of Islamic faith are bad people.

Three weeks and we have basically done nothing (as far as anyone knows) to counter these attacks. Three weeks is a long time not to respond to what amounts to the bombing of New York City and Washington DC. Three weeks! And now, with the "give peace a chance crowd" voices getting louder and larger in number with each passing day, my biggest fears are coming to fruition. We are losing momentum. In our politically correct society, in our opinion poll driven government, I fear that we may have lost our window of opportunity to strike back at these bastards at all.

Almost from the first day, I had a sinking feeling that it wouldn't last. The patriotism, the rage. All Americans united with "one voice." It was stirring at first. Divine in it's mission. Still, I wondered how long it would take for the peace marches to start. I wondered how long it would take for the civil liberties and politically correct spokespeople to talk "understanding."

The entertainment community was curiously silent for quite a long time. Then on September 21st, a full TEN DAYS after the attack, they held their "telethon" to raise money for the victims. Of course, by then, people across the country, not to mention throughout the world, had already contributed hundreds of millions of dollars without being urged to by movie actors and recording artists. Nobody needed them. But they needed to finally say or do SOMETHING, so they did what they do best -- they stood in front of cameras and emoted.

Now, I'm sure many of them really thought they were doing a good and honorable thing. But why in the world did they find it necessary to show close-up pictures of (what appeared to be) Arab children crying while they sang songs of grief and peace?

In the beginning, all the usual big mouths were strangely silent. Warren Beatty. Barbra Streisand. Rosie O'Donnell. Ted Turner. Jane Fonda. Phil Donahue. But now they are starting to surface. Evidently enough time has gone by and they feel safe to speak their worn mantras like "not another innocent life should be taken," and "violence begets violence." In my wildest dreams, I never thought this country would be reliving the 60's again. Bill and Hillary must be so excited. Their era has returned.

Jesse Jackson has finally crawled out of the woodwork to suggest that he go to Afghanistan and "negotiate" with the Taliban terrorists. I like half that idea -- the part where he goes to Afghanistan. But I suggest he STAY THERE.

Thousands of clergy, along with many other "war protesters" are signing petitions and urging people to curb their anger and not fight violence with violence, saying that we must not rush into anything. Rush into anything? Excuse me, but it's been three weeks after the attack on our shores that murdered thousands of civilians, and our government has yet to fire a shot, let alone "rush into anything." Are these people evil, cowards, or just plain stupid?

Stupidity, or perhaps hysteria has run amuck. No carry-on bags and no curbside check-in at the airports (as if that would have changed what happened on September 11th). Airline pilots are not even allowed to carry on a pair of nail clippers. At the monthly Rose bowl swap meet, people carrying American flags had the sticks confiscated by security guards because they might be used as weapons.

Much of the tough rhetoric of three weeks ago has softened. We're gone from feeling sorry for the victims of the terrorist attacks to feeling sorry for the poor innocent Arab Americans who are being "racially profiled" and singled out. Did I miss something? What happened to fighting back? To taking the fight to their homeland? To defending our country? Listen, I don't want any innocent Arab-Americans killed or hurt, but our first priority must be to show the monsters that attacked us some strength. We must hit back before they hit us again. To do less, is to jeopardize more American lives. The next attack will be far worse, far worse -- and it won't be from a hijacked commercial airliner.

As far as the peace demonstrators are concerned, I've got a great idea for them. A way they can really be of use to the whole world. Let's reconfigure the Peace Corps and draft all these beautiful people into it. All of them -- the media elite, the academic intellectuals, and the movie stars and rock stars included. Then board them onto planes and drop them into Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Lybia, Sudan, Lebanon, Egypt, everywhere terrorist organizations are located in vast numbers. Let them hold their marches and rallies where it will do the most good -- in the center stage of hate. In the womb where evil is being born every day and the murder of innocents is considered noble.

Go ahead, Phil Donahue, tell Mullah Mohammed Omar to "give peace a chance."


JWR contributor Greg Crosby, former creative head for Walt Disney publications, has written thousands of comics, hundreds of children's books, dozens of essays, and a letter to his congressman. You may contact him by clicking here.

Greg Crosby Archives


© 2001 Greg Crosby