Are We Safer?
by Daniel Pipes
New York Post
April 30, 2002
Are Americans taking the necessary steps to protect themselves
from further attacks?
This question comes to mind on reading a news dispatch titled,
"Iran Enthusiastically Celebrates the American ˜Humiliation' at
Tabas 22 Years Ago."
It refers to Tabas, a remote desert town in Iran - the site of a U.S.
military disaster. On April 25, 1980, a rescue team sent by
President Jimmy Carter to spring 49 Americans held hostage in
the U.S. embassy in Tehran had to abort when two U.S. aircraft
collided at Tabas, leaving eight soldiers dead.
To this day, Iran's militant Islamic leadership keeps the memory
of that day alive. Last week, the government bused thousands of
militiamen to Tabas where they prayed and shouted slogans like
"Death to America" and "Death to Israel." It will build a museum
in Tabas exclusively devoted to chronicling the failed U.S.
mission. Iranian television news informs viewers that the failure
"proves the weakness of the United States."
The disaster has gone down the memory hole for Americans. But
it's Americans (and Israelis and other Westerners) who really
should be recalling the Tabas incident, for it marked a major
turning point.
It was when the current round of militant Islam's war against the
West took its first fatalities. "Death to America" proved to be not
an empty slogan but the battle cry of this era's most vibrant and
dangerous extremist ideology.
In retrospect, it is clear that the eight deaths at Tabas were the
very first in a sequence that has continued for over two decades.
Consider just some of the attacks on Americans:
* April 1983: U.S. embassy in Beirut bombed, killing 63.
* October '83: U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut bombed, killing
241.
* December '83: U.S. embassy in Kuwait bombed, killing 6.
* January '84: Malcolm Kerr, president of the American
University of Beirut, assassinated.
* April '84: Hezbollah attacks the environs of a U.S. airbase in
Spain, killing 18 servicemen.
* September '84: U.S. embassy in Beirut again bombed, killing 16.
* December '84: Two Americans murdered on a hijacked plane in
Tehran.
* June '85: U.S. seaman killed on a hijacked plane in Beirut.
And on and on. More recent incidents include the World Trade
Center bombing of February '93, the two attacks on U.S. soldiers
in Saudi Arabia in '95 and '96, the two U.S. embassies blown up in
East Africa in August '98 and the USS Cole bombed in Yemen in
October 2000. In all, some 600 Americans lost their lives to
militant Islam before September 2001.
All of these were highly publicized incidents, dominating the
headlines and furrowing brows about an effective
counterterrorism policy. But they did not inspire action. The U.S.
government neither attacked the enemy nor changed policies. For
example, the 241 dead at the Marine barracks bombing (the
largest number of Americans killed by militant Islam before 9/11)
brought forth no retaliation at all and the World Trade Center
bombing prompted no review of immigration procedures.
In short, although Americans were repeatedly attacked, they
barely responded. One can hardly blame the militant Islamic
groups and governments for concluding that the United States was
weak, demoralized and ripe for attack. The population was
feckless, distracted and complacent, the government incompetent.
And now? The trauma of September changed some things but not
enough. The government won't name militant Islam as the enemy
but hides behind the euphemism of "terrorism." The CIA and FBI
remain largely unchanged. Airline security is a sham. Israel is
constrained from rooting out the Palestinian terrorist
infrastructure.
As the sense of vulnerability and resolve of seven months ago
dissipates, Americans are returning to business as usual. Sept. 11
increasingly feels like a remote nightmare without much
relevance to the present circumstances.
To which I predict: If things proceed in this direction, there can
only be one certain result - further assaults perpetrated by militant
Islam. The carnage begun that awful day in the Iranian desert in
1980 will not run its course until Americans understand how
much they need to fear and loathe militant Islam. We can only
hope this happens sooner rather than later, so that the number of
casualties to come will be smaller rather than larger.
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