U.S. Navy Captain Ouimette is the Executive Officer at Naval Air
Station, Pensacola, Florida. Here is a copy of the speech he gave last month.
It is an accurate account of why we are in so much trouble today and why this
action is so necessary.
AMERICA NEEDS TO WAKE UP!
That's what we think we heard on the 11th of September 2001 (When
more than 3,000 Americans were killed -AD) and maybe it was, but I think it
should have been "Get Out of Bed!" In fact, I think the alarm clock has been
buzzing since 1979 and we have continued to hit the snooze button and roll over for
a few more minutes of peaceful sleep since then.
It was a cool fall day in November 1979 in a country going through a
religious and political upheaval when a group of Iranian students attacked and
seized the American Embassy in Tehran. This seizure was an outright attack
on American soil; it was an attack that held the world's most powerful country
hostage and paralyzed a Presidency The attack on this sovereign U. S.
embassy set the stage for events to follow for the next 23 years.
America was still reeling from the aftermath of the Vietnam
experience and had a serious threat from the Soviet Union when then, President Carter,
had to do some thing. He chose to conduct a clandestine raid in the desert
The ill-fated mission ended in ruin, but stood as a symbol of America's
inability to deal with terrorism.
America's military had been decimated and downsized/right sized since
the end of the Vietnam War. A poorly trained, poorly equipped and poorly
organized military was called on to execute a complex mission that was doomed
from the start.
Shortly after the Tehran experience, Americans began to be kidnapped
and killed throughout the Middle East. America could do little to protect her
citizens living and working abroad. The attacks against US soil continued.
In April of 1983 a large vehicle packed with high explosives was
driven into the US Embassy compound in Beirut. When it explodes, it kills 63
people. The alarm went off again and America hit the Snooze Button once more.
Then just six short months later a large truck heavily laden down
with over 2500 pounds of TNT smashed through the main gate of the US Marine Corps
headquarters in Beirut and 241 US servicemen are killed. America mourns her
dead and hit the Snooze Button once more.
Two months later in December 1983, another truck loaded with
explosives is driven into the US Embassy in Kuwait, and America continues her slumber.
The following year, in September 1984, another van was driven into
the gates of the US Embassy in Beirut and America slept.
Soon the terrorism spreads to Europe. In April 1985 a bomb explodes
in a restaurant frequented by US soldiers in Madrid.
Then in August a Volkswagen loaded with explosives is driven into the
main gate of the US Air Force Base at Rhein-Main, 22 are killed and the
snooze alarm is buzzing louder and louder as US interests are continually attacked.
Fifty-nine days later a cruise ship, the Achille Lauro is hijacked
and we watched as an American in a wheelchair is singled out of the passenger
list and executed.
The terrorists then shift their tactics to bombing civilian airliners
when they bomb TWA Flight 840 in April of 1986 that killed 4 and the most
tragic bombing, Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988, killing 259.
Clinton treated these terrorist acts as crimes; in fact we are still
trying to bring these people to trial. These are acts of war.
The wake up alarm is getting louder and louder. The terrorists
decide to bring the fight to America. In January 1993, two CIA agents are shot and
killed as they enter CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.
The following month, February 1993, a group of terrorists are
arrested after a rented van packed with explosives is driven into the underground
parking garage of the World Trade Center in New York City. Six people are killed
and over 1000 are injured. Still this is a crime and not an act of war?
The Snooze alarm is depressed again. Then in November 1995 a car
bomb explodes at a US military complex in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia killing seven
service men and women.
A few months later in June of 1996, another truck bomb explodes only
35 yards from the US military compound in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
It destroys the Khobar Towers, a US Air Force barracks, killing 19
and injuring over 500. The terrorists are getting braver and smarter as they
see that America does not respond decisively.
They move to coordinate their attacks in a simultaneous attack on two
US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. These attacks were planned with
precision. They kill 224. America responds with cruise missile attacks and goes back
to sleep.
The USS Cole was docked in the port of Aden, Yemen for refueling on
12 October 2000, when a small craft pulled along side the ship and exploded kill
ing 17 US Navy Sailors. Attacking a US War Ship is an act of war, but we
sent the FBI to investigate the crime and went back to sleep.
And of course you know the events of 11 September 2001. Most
Americans think this was the first attack against US soil or in America How wrong
they are. America has been under a constant attack since 1979 and we chose to
hit the snooze alarm and roll over and go back to sleep.
In the news lately we have seen lots of finger pointing from every
high officials in government over what they knew and what they didn't know. But
if you've read the papers and paid a little attention I think you can see
exactly what they knew. You don't have to be in the FBI or CIA or on the
National Security Council to see the pattern that has been developing since1979.
The President is right on when he says we are engaged in a war. I
think we have been in a war for the past 23 years and it will continue until we
as a people decide enough is enough.
America needs to "Get out of Bed" and act decisively now. America
has been changed forever. We have to be ready to pay the price and make the
sacrifice to ensure our way of life continues. We cannot afford to keep hitting
the snooze button again and again and roll over and go back to sleep.
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Admiral Yamamoto said "...it seems
all we have done is awakened a sleeping giant." This is the message we need to
disseminate to terrorists around the world.
Support Our Troops and support President Bush for having the courage,
political or militarily, to address what so many who preceded him didn't have
the backbone to do both Democrat and Republican. This is not a political
thing to be hashed over in an election year this is an AMERICAN thing This is
about our Freedom and the Freedom of our children in years to come.
