This was copied from another forum & it highlights what I have felt all along.
"Let me count the atrocities committed against Americans (and Westerners in general) by Islamic "extremists:
In November 1979, fifty-two American citizens were taken hostage when militant Islamic students stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.
Between 1982 and 1992, 30 westerners were kidnapped and held hostage in Lebanon.
In April 1983, a vehicle packed with explosives was driven into the U.S. Embassy compound in Beirut, killing 63 people.
In October 1983, a large truck containing canisters of explosive gas wrapped with explosives was driven into the U.S. Marine Corps headquarters in Beirut, killing 241 U.S. servicemen and wounding over 100 more.
In December 1983, the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait was bombed in a series of attacks whose targets also included the French embassy, the control tower at the airport, the country's main oil refinery, and a residential area for employees of the American corporation Raytheon. Five people were killed and more than 80 others were injured.
In September 1984, a truck bomb exploded outside a U.S. Embassy annex near Beirut killing 24 people, two of whom were U.S. military personnel.
In December 1984, Kuwait Airways Flight 221, on its way from Kuwait to Pakistan, was hijacked and diverted to Tehran. The hijackers demanded the release of the 17 terrorists convicted for the December 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait. When the demand wasn't met, the hijackers killed two American officials from the U.S. Agency for International Development.
In June 1985, TWA Flight 847 was hijacked en route from Athens to Rome and forced to land in Beirut, where the hijackers held the plane for 17 days demanding the release of convicted Islamic terrorists. When these demands weren't met, hostage Robert Dean Stethem, a U.S. Navy diver, was shot and his body dumped on the airport tarmac.
In October 1985, four gunmen hijacked the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro and demanded the release of Palestinian prisoners in Egypt, Italy, and elsewhere. When the demands weren't met, they killed Leon Klinghoffer, a 69-year-old disabled American tourist.
In December 1985, airports in Rome and Vienna were bombed, killing 20 people, five of whom were Americans.
In April 1986, an American soldier was killed when a bomb was detonated at a discotheque in West Berlin known to be popular with off-duty U.S. servicemen. A Turkish woman was killed, and nearly 200 others were wounded.
In April 1986, three American University of Beirut employees were found shot to death near Beirut.
In April 1986, a terrorist bomb exploded on-board TWA Flight 840, killing four. Among those killed were Maria Stylian Klug and her infant daughter Demetra, who were blown out of the plane and fell thousands of feet to their deaths.
In December 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 from London to New York exploded over the small town of Lockerbie, Scotland. All 259 people on board were killed, along with 11 on the ground.
In January 1993, two CIA agents were shot and killed as they entered CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.
In February 1993, a van packed with explosives was detonated in the underground parking garage of the World Trade Center in New York City, killing six people and injuring over 1000.
In November 1995, a car bomb exploded at a U.S. military complex in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, killing seven service men and women.
In June 1996, a truck bomb destroyed the Khobar Towers, a U.S. Air Force barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, killing 19 and injuring over 500.
In August 1998, simultaneous attacks on two U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania killed 224.
In October 2000, the USS Cole was attacked in the port of Aden, Yemen, killing 17 U.S. Navy sailors.
On September 11, 2001, coordinated attacks using hijacked U.S. airliners killed approximately 3000 in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Shanksville, Pennsylvania.
In January 2002, reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped in Pakistan. The following month, his captors released a video tape showing his murder by decapitation.
In April 2004, American contractor Nick Berg was kidnapped in Iraq. In May, a video was released on the internet showing Berg's gruesome decapitation.
In June 2004, American contractor Paul Johnson was kidnapped in Saudi Arabia. His captors demanded the release of all al-Quaeda prisoners by the Saudi government. When their demands were not met, they beheaded Mr. Johnson, and posted pictures of his decapitated body on the internet.
Do you get the picture? We may have only realized we were at war on September 11, 2001, but the enemy has been at war against us for the past 25 years."
