Speech by US Navy Captain...

[Eventual Champs]

I'm fairly certain this was posted here before, but being slow as I am, I just came across this as he purportedly had just given the speech again. Interesting perspective.

 

 

Speech given by US Navy Captain Dan Ouimette, to the Pensacola Civitan Club Feb 19, 2003. Captain Ouimette was the Executive Officer of NAS, Pensacola, FL. at that time.

 

_____________________________________________

 

America WAKE UP!

 

That's what we think we heard on the 11th of September 2001 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 US embassy set the stage for the events to follow for the next

23 years.

 

America was still reeling from the aftermath of the Viet Nam experience and had a serious threat from the Soviet Union when then, President Carter, had to do something. 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 Viet Nam 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. 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 soil is 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. America wants to treat 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 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 killing 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 official 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 since

1979. 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 has to "Get out of Bed" and act decisively now. America has 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 hit the Snooze Button again and roll over and go back to sleep. We have to make the terrorists know that in the words of Admiral Yamamoto after the attack on Pearl Harbor "that all they have done is to awaken a sleeping giant."

[RuntheDamnBall]

America has to "Get out of Bed" and act decisively now. America has 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 hit the Snooze Button again and roll over and go back to sleep. We have to make the terrorists know that in the words of Admiral Yamamoto after the attack on Pearl Harbor "that all they have done is to awaken a sleeping giant."

726646[/snapback]

This is a term I hear so often and it drives me nuts. Obviously, our way of life has changed if we have to sacrifice life to maintain it.

 

I argue there's another way. We can kick our dependency on foreign oil, and on oil, period, and shift into high gear on sustainable energy sources. Yes, it's a change in our way of life -- but we can't keep expecting to live off of oil and live sustainably. We can change our way of life without committing American lives and deaths to war, by not funding both sides of the war on terror through our oil consumption. Profits for renewable energy will come when we stop subsidizing oil at the expense of the former.

 

The question is this: which is more valuable to us? Short-term profits, or American lives? Isn't the latter what we're supposedly fighting for anyway? How far has it gotten us in this battle?

[PastaJoe]

America has to "Get out of Bed" and act decisively now. America has 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 hit the Snooze Button again and roll over and go back to sleep. We have to make the terrorists know that in the words of Admiral Yamamoto after the attack on Pearl Harbor "that all they have done is to awaken a sleeping giant."

726646[/snapback]

 

Haven't I heard this speech before? I think it was in the movie "Dr Strangelove", when the general played by George C Scott was convincing the President that we should kill the commie pinkos before they kill us. Then Dr Strangelove explained how the leadership could live underground to avoid the nuclear radiation that would kill the civilians, and that the leadership would have a ratio of a few women to each man underground to help repopulate the earth. They liked that idea. Very similar.

[Pine Barrens Mafia]

Haven't I heard this speech before?  I think it was in the movie "Dr Strangelove", when the general played by George C Scott was convincing the President that we should kill the commie pinkos before they kill us.  Then Dr Strangelove explained how the leadership could live underground to avoid the nuclear radiation that would kill the civilians, and that the leadership would have a ratio of a few women to each man underground to help repopulate the earth.  They liked that idea.  Very similar.

726757[/snapback]

 

You're an !@#$, you know that? Do us a favor. Move to Riyadh, Muhammad.

 

It seems you love the Arabs and hate us, so leave. You'd be doing us a favor.

[Pine Barrens Mafia]

This is a term I hear so often and it drives me nuts.  Obviously, our way of life has changed if we have to sacrifice life to maintain it.

 

I argue there's another way.  We can kick our dependency on foreign oil, and on oil, period, and shift into high gear on sustainable energy sources.  Yes, it's a change in our way of life -- but we can't keep expecting to live off of oil and live sustainably.  We can change our way of life without committing American lives and deaths to war, by not funding both sides of the war on terror through our oil consumption.  Profits for renewable energy will come when we stop subsidizing oil at the expense of the former.

 

The question is this: which is more valuable to us?  Short-term profits, or American lives?  Isn't the latter what we're supposedly fighting for anyway?  How far has it gotten us in this battle?

726678[/snapback]

 

Come on now, do you REALLY believe that if we end our dependence on oil, they'll quit bombing us? They'll just find new reasons to hate us and therefore attack us. They aren't rational in the Western sense.

[Chilly]

A guy from the military promoting Wilsonian-military democratization. What a shock!

 

Is Democratization by force really going to change anything? Wilson showed that it didn't work in Latin America. Why do we think its going to work in an even tougher situation in the Middle East?

 

Bush has put blind faith in the democratic peace theory, and like Wilson did, is using military to force democratization. Wilson failed, and history does repeat itself.

 

I think Bush is making the same mistakes that good ol' Woodrow did: forcing elections on a country without building the environment for democracy first. Political parties in Iraq seem to be a mess, the media over there hasn't had a chance to mature and sort itself out yet, etc. These things need to be in order, strong, and stable before elections.

 

Democracy isn't a fix all, but it seems like most of this country likes to conveniently think that it is, and forcing democracy on someone and holding elections will just fix everything. It won't, not without a huge complexity of other things in place too.

 

Unfortunately, I don't think our administration understands that. Tis a shame, since Iraq has a chance to turn into a democracy.

[Wacka]

Come on now, do you REALLY believe that if we end our dependence on oil, they'll quit bombing us? They'll just find new reasons to hate us and therefore attack us. They aren't rational in the Western sense.

726839[/snapback]

 

They'd hate us because then we wouldn't need to buy their oil.

[RuntheDamnBall]

Come on now, do you REALLY believe that if we end our dependence on oil, they'll quit bombing us? They'll just find new reasons to hate us and therefore attack us. They aren't rational in the Western sense.

726839[/snapback]

I sincerely believe that if we have no reason to be in the M.E. and rich regimes that have all the power they need from high-priced oil gradually lose their power base and source of income, it will be a democratizing factor. I didn't say it would make everything rosy, but we would be able to focus on protecting ourselves absent the oil issue. As of right now, we may have helped sound the death-knell for M.E. democracy (or at least set it back a good ways) by forcing it on a public that can, presently, be whipped up into jihadist furor. Face it. Saddam was no saint, but he was a chess piece there that meant these nations had to deal with one another -- or at least they neutralized one another. Now they deal explicitly with us. We're the lightning rod. Yes, they may have been trying to conspire against us, but I think that's where the oil issue comes into play. We don't fund these guys, things get much harder for them.

 

I'm not convinced it had to be this way. Are you?

[RuntheDamnBall]

They'd hate us because then we wouldn't need to buy their oil.

726925[/snapback]

What's your !@#$ing point? They might hate us, but they have a lot harder time pulling anything off against us when they're not flush with cash from ever-rising oil prices.

 

Not only that, but the fact that these regimes can make money by drilling holes in the ground means they DON'T have to fund an infrastructure, an educational system -- they don't have to put the money into their people to build an economy. It's a surefire formula for desperation for the common man. Desperation conducive to ultra-religious fervor, a hope for salvation that lies beyond a life not worth living. And don't for a second buy this as rationalization. The onus is on you to sell it to me that it MUST be the way it is now, that more wholesale violent action isn't going to breed more enemies. So far the batting average is pretty damned low.

[Crap Throwing Monkey]

I, for one, would like to thank Captain Ouimette for that scintillatingly incorrect and half-assed analysis of terrorism in the past quarter-century.

 

What a load of !@#$ing bull sh--. Ouimette should stick to what he does best - issuing press releases saying "We don't know why the trainee crashed the plane" - and not opine on sh-- he clearly knows nothing about.

[cromagnum]

What's your !@#$ing point?  They might hate us, but they have a lot harder time pulling anything off against us when they're not flush with cash from ever-rising oil prices.

 

Not only that, but the fact that these regimes can make money by drilling holes in the ground means they DON'T have to fund an infrastructure, an educational system -- they don't have to put the money into their people to build an economy.  It's a surefire formula for desperation for the common man.  Desperation conducive to ultra-religious fervor, a hope for salvation that lies beyond a life not worth living.  And don't for a second buy this as rationalization.  The onus is on you to sell it to me that it MUST be the way it is now, that more wholesale violent action isn't going to breed more enemies.  So far the batting average is pretty damned low.

726935[/snapback]

Hey now, I would love for us not to be their largest cash-cow.

[Chilly]

I sincerely believe that if we have no reason to be in the M.E. and rich regimes that have all the power they need from high-priced oil gradually lose their power base and source of income, it will be a democratizing factor.  I didn't say it would make everything rosy, but we would be able to focus on protecting ourselves absent the oil issue.  As of right now, we may have helped sound the death-knell for M.E. democracy (or at least set it back a good ways) by forcing it on a public that can, presently, be whipped up into jihadist furor.  Face it.  Saddam was no saint, but he was a chess piece there that meant these nations had to deal with one another -- or at least they neutralized one another.  Now they deal explicitly with us.  We're the lightning rod.  Yes, they may have been trying to conspire against us, but I think that's where the oil issue comes into play.  We don't fund these guys, things get much harder for them.

 

I'm not convinced it had to be this way.  Are you?

726934[/snapback]

 

You are correct sir. The Middle East is one huge Rentier State unfortunately, and theres lots of evidence that says that Oil both hurts democratization and a country's long-term economy due to that very thing.

[TPS]

You're an !@#$, you know that? Do us a favor. Move to Riyadh, Muhammad.

 

It seems you love the Arabs and hate us, so leave. You'd be doing us a favor.

726832[/snapback]

 

Gee, I get that from his statement too. Friggin AAArab lover!

 

It's a celebrity death match--Jesus vs. Mohamad!

 

All muslims bad; all christians good. Who's the idiot...? Who's being duped?

 

Time will tell...

[BillsFanNC]

Gee, I get that from his statement too.  Friggin AAArab lover!

 

It's a celebrity death match--Jesus vs. Mohamad! 

 

All muslims bad; all christians good.  Who's the idiot...? Who's being duped?

 

Time will tell...

727068[/snapback]

 

The depths of stupidity reached here never ceases to amaze me.

[cromagnum]

What's your !@#$ing point?  They might hate us, but they have a lot harder time pulling anything off against us when they're not flush with cash from ever-rising oil prices.

 

  It's a surefire formula for desperation for the common man.  Desperation conducive to ultra-religious fervor, a hope for salvation that lies beyond a life not worth living.

726935[/snapback]

Alot of people have been caught in the crossfire, I imagine some will seek revenge and there will be people to finance that revenge with the oil money..

I use to think that a nuclear war was far fetched, not no more, with the way situations are resolved now... Our southern border worries me, it's to easy for a terrorist to slip in and set off a nuke... Found this video of a simulation...

Something to think about when you see the chaos building...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3U040optE4...page=2&t=t&f=b#

[cromagnum]

The BBC was invited by Hizb'Allah to video parts of beruit.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCDUrRrHi4g...page=5&t=t&f=b#

[PastaJoe]

You're an !@#$, you know that? Do us a favor. Move to Riyadh, Muhammad.

 

It seems you love the Arabs and hate us, so leave. You'd be doing us a favor.

726832[/snapback]

 

I couldn't leave America to people like you, the brain-drain would be too great. Unlike you, I can be concerned about the well-being of all people, even if they don't have the same religious beliefs or lifestyles as me. I would like our government to treat other nations as I would want to be treated if they were the superpower and we were the group without any high-tech military or economic clout, namely as a fair and balanced moderator to disputes that is concerned with the lives of all civilians, not just some. Otherwise all you're doing is creating the next generation of people that hate and despise America.

[Crap Throwing Monkey]

I couldn't leave America to people like you, the brain-drain would be too great.  Unlike you, I can be concerned about the well-being of all people, even if they don't have the same religious beliefs or lifestyles as me.  I would like our government to treat other nations as I would want to be treated if they were the superpower and we were the group without any high-tech military or economic clout, namely as a fair and balanced moderator to disputes that is concerned with  the lives of all civilians, not just some.  Otherwise all you're doing is creating the next generation of people that hate and despise America.

727226[/snapback]

 

"Someday we'll find it, the Rainbow Connection...The lovers, the dreamers and me..."

[Pine Barrens Mafia]

I couldn't leave America to people like you, the brain-drain would be too great.  Unlike you, I can be concerned about the well-being of all people, even if they don't have the same religious beliefs or lifestyles as me.  I would like our government to treat other nations as I would want to be treated if they were the superpower and we were the group without any high-tech military or economic clout, namely as a fair and balanced moderator to disputes that is concerned with  the lives of all civilians, not just some.  Otherwise all you're doing is creating the next generation of people that hate and despise America.

727226[/snapback]

 

Doesn't the sh-- coming out of your mouth taste horrible?

 

Yes. Maybe if we laid down our weapons and took up the cause of the oppressed and helpless everywhere we'd be super popular! Maybe if we taxed ourselves at a rate of 80% we'd be able to socialize EVERYTHING and leave NOBODY behind!

 

Here's an idea...how about you go see how tolerant THEY are of your lifestyles and or religious beliefs. Hope you enjoy time in prison.

 

You're an appeaser, it's plain as day. "fair and balanced moderator" my ass.

[Chilly]

Doesn't the sh-- coming out of your mouth taste horrible?

 

Yes. Maybe if we laid down our weapons and took up the cause of the oppressed and helpless everywhere we'd be super popular! Maybe if we taxed ourselves at a rate of 80% we'd be able to socialize EVERYTHING and leave NOBODY behind!

 

Here's an idea...how about you go see how tolerant THEY are of your lifestyles and or religious beliefs. Hope you enjoy time in prison.

 

You're an appeaser, it's plain as day. "fair and balanced moderator" my ass.

727883[/snapback]

 

Guess what? You're just as bad.

 

Military-based forced democratization does nothing to solve the problems without years and years of building up of democratic institutions.

 

You aren't solving anything either. Oh, and just so you know, the majority of people in the middle east are concerned with human rights and freedoms above all else. They don't hate Democracy or our lifestyle. They hate some our policies, but not our lifestyle.

 

Of course, this all depends on what the definition of "they" is. Are you referring to strictly terrorists (which, by the way, are cells, not nations, and are a minority, not majority) or all people in the region? PastaJoe was using it in the sense of the majority of the middle east, you seem to think that terrorists are the only answer.

 

I'm not saying Pasta boy is right, I don't think he is completely. And I'm not saying you are completely wrong, you aren't. I'm saying that the real answer, like most things in life, falls between the two extremes, and the people fighting for the extremes are just making the problems worse, not better.