Dont give the terrorists an inch or they will want a mile (The War Against Terrorism)

Member Name: Mick-Gray

Product:	The War Against Terrorism
Date:	27/09/06 (164 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Preserve our democratic way of life

Disadvantages: it will be a long struggle

There have always been people who have been prepared to try and achieve their aims by terrorising others into submitting to their demands. History is full of such people, many of them achieved their aims because of the fear they created, or because governments or countries tried to appease them by compromise, or giving in totally to their demands. This has sent out a message to the fanatics that terrorism works, keep at it and we will bit by bit get what we want, even if it is not the wish of the majority.

At the moment the threat to the western world is coming from fanatical Muslim fundamentalists. I have listened to all the arguments by the appeasers as to why we are experiencing this threat. It is our foreign policy, our support for Israel, our greed for Middle Eastern oil, our war on Iraq and in Afghanistan, our treatment of Muslims, it goes on and on. They tell us we must pull our troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan we must alter our foreign policy to suit the terrorists and it will all be fine. What a load of codswallop.

When you point out to these people that the attack on the world trade centre in America happened before we sent troops to Afghanistan and before the war in Iraq they then say we invaded Iraq in the first Gulf war or that we support Israel against the Palestinians.

Well lets start with Palestine which seems to be (if you listen to the appeasers) the cause of the whole problem. Historically the area that is now Israel was Palestine. After the Second World War thousands of Jewish refugees who had suffered horrendous treatment during the war decided that they wanted to go to, what to them was, their historical homeland where they joined many Jewish people who still lived there. They decided rightly or wrongly that they wanted a Jewish state. This was violently opposed by the local Arab or Muslim population and I might add by the British who were in control of the area at the time. A full scale war broke out and this ended with the United Nations giving Israel a mandate to exist as a Jewish state. It can be argued that the Israel took the land from the Palestinians but then if you must go back into history didn’t the Muslims take it from the Jews in the first place.

Although the majority of the world accepted Israel as a state the Muslim world never did and vowed to destroy it. During the second failed attempt by the surrounding Muslim nations to wipe Israel from the face of the earth, Israel occupied large areas of land belonging to Egypt, Syria and Jordan, mainly at the time, as a buffer zone to protect their own citizens from attack. Rightly or wrongly they held on to some of this land and started to build settlements on it. After two failed attempts at all out war the fanatical percentage of the Muslim population decided to adopt terrorist tactics to achieve their aims and each time Israel retaliates they scream that they are being attacked and it is Israel that is at fault.

I don’t know what the answer to this problem is. I don’t think there is one. Israel now exists. Whether it should or shouldn’t have been formed is history and can’t be changed, but this will never be accepted by the fundamentalist Muslims, who will never cease to believe that the Land occupied by Israel should be a Muslim state.

So what do we do? I believe that Israel as a state now has the right to exist in peace and we therefore must oppose all attempts by terrorists or Muslim nations to attack it and prolong the problems of the Middle East.

I also believe we have a right to, or not to, hold these views without the fear of being blown up by people with different views.

The war in Iraq was not a war against Muslims nor was the war in Afghanistan. We went into Afghanistan to rid the world of a terrible fundamentalist and oppressive regime that was spawning, training and protecting terrorists and who were hell bent on destroying our way of life and making life for the majority of the people in Afghanistan nothing more than a miserable existence.

Iraq maybe is a bit more contentious for some people, as many believe we only went to war there because of oil. Whatever the real reason George Bush and Tony Blair had for this war, it has at least achieved the removal of one of the worlds worst Dictators since Hitler. If we had not gone to war in Iraq Sadam would still be there, killing and torturing thousands as he had done in the past. At least the people of Iraq now have the chance of a democratic society if we do not allow the terrorists to create civil war which will only let the fundamentalists take control.

So we must fight these terrorists where ever we find them and however we can. We must not surrender our democratic ideals and way of life in any way, shape or form to appease these people who if given an inch would want a mile. Compromise does not work if it is wrong it is wrong and if it is right it is right there are no half measures. The democratic way (Our way) is to vote out a government if we don’t agree with them not blow people up. If our views are not the majority views then protest peacefully, try to convince people by logical argument and if we can’t do that then hard luck the majority have had their say.

Although the problems from terrorism are coming only from fanatics and fundamentalists, there is a problem that the Muslim faith as a whole must overcome. That is the assumption that anything that this country does that affects another country is an attack upon the religion of that country. For example because we invaded Afghanistan or Iraq It was not an attack on the Muslim faith, it was rightly or wrongly an attack on the governments of Iraq and Afghanistan and that is all.

When the I.R.A. was bombing the U.K we didn't say we were under attack by catholics we said we were under attack by the IRA most of whom were catholics. We didn't rant to the pope and say it was his fault. If you are British then you are British whatever your religion. When we went to war with Argentina we weren't at war with Catholics we were at war with Argentina and the many Catholics in the British Armed forces did not see it as a war against their religion and were happy to serve their country.

As a British Citizen you have a right to agree or disagree with the policy of the government but just because the policy of the government is affecting people who happen to be of the same religion as you should not in itself shape your view. Your view should only be formed by whether you think that the policy is right or wrong regardless of the religion of the people it is affecting

Mick Gray

Summary: We must continue the fight against terrorism