Waiting for the "War"

To Step Up A Notch

By Allan Saxe, WBAP Political Analyst

It is a strange war on terrorism we are waging. As of this writing, October 16,2001 it seems to be a very low- grade war and not consistent with the rhetoric we heard early on. President Bush and his administration spoke forcefully and correctly labeling the terrorist acts as "acts of war." Ironically, the war we are waging has brought us closer to some terrorist countries. We seem to be cozying up to Iran and Syria, two regimes on our terrorist lists for years. Two old-time terrorist organizations, Hamas and Hezbollah have not even been listed on our terrorist list during this new war. And Syria has now been voted onto the United Nations Security Council without even the United States voting no.

The excuse given for these curious antics is that we have to "crawl into bed with some odious creatures" to fight the war on terrorism. It is understandable to make deals with individual terrorists to infiltrate their webs, but to make cozy with nations that have harbored terrorists for many years seems counterproductive. The hope is that these countries will expel or make it more difficult for terrorists to exist on their lands. But these nations have a history of doing one thing one moment and another thing next. They can expel one terrorist group one week and the next week invite them back in.

At this stage, sadly, the terrorists have hit us hard. They have struck at us at their choosing and wrecked psychological and physical carnage. At the end of the full fight we will prevail, but now the United States as a nation is on the defensive with troops at airports and mail- rooms on alert for some horrible bio-chemical hazard. True, we are striking back at the Taliban and Osama in Afghanistan, but some pundits already are speculating on the results, and some news accounts point to Pakistan searching for a cease-fire there. We are respectful of civilian casualties, so much so that it may be impossible to wage an all-out war. We are waging a war in a way not to offend as many as possible. We are so careful not to upset already weak allies (with the exception of Great Britain) in our much-talked-about coalition that we may not be able to fight an all-out war. One of our old-time "friends" in the Middle East, Saudi Arabia for years has been, by many accounts, funneling money to terrorist organizations to keep them off their back. No wonder the Saudis do not let us use their land to launch attacks, even from air bases we helped them construct. Isn't it wonderful to know that for decades of purchasing Saudi oil some of the proceeds may have gone to terrorists!

The executive branch of our government waging this war seems to be drawing the terrorism war very narrowly. They only wish to tie it to the attacks of September 11. However, terrorist networks all over the world seem to have loose ties with one another. Even though their agendas may be different, they aid one another in a variety of ways. We cannot just tie this war on terrorism to Osama and September 11 if we are really going to wage an all-out war.

It is understandable that the American public wishes to return to a normal state. We all wish for that. We yearn to bring back the predictability and stability that existed before September 11. Perhaps President Bush and his administration really will wage an all-out war so that we can some day return to a safe and secure nation. There will never be a better time to capitalize on his robust language than now with the nation so united. But at this moment it seems that we are trying to find a short and circuitous route in fighting the scourge of terrorism.

Allan Saxe serves as political analyst for WBAP News/Talk 820 and writes an opinion column for the Star-Telegram.

Listener Comments

The demand for crude oil here could be greatly reduced by more practically putting to use existing alternatives such as running gasoline engines on alcohol in years to come. Little electric cars are a nice "feel good" alternative but not practical. People don't think of the energy demands if we all plugged our cars in at night. Alcohol has been used in race cars as far back as the early 1950's so little research would be necessary for this transition. Manufacturers of diesel engines are already testing using vegetable oil as a fuel with what I understand some success. Since we already use synthetics as lubricants I would say we don't lack much of the luxury of not needing crude oil at all! All except a strong oil lobby in Washington, D.C. that will say that all of this is not practical. The buggy whip industry should have been this powerful 100 years ago!

Erich Benz - Denton

You can express your opinions to this column by CLICKING HERE. Be sure to include your name and city of residence. This information may be included with any published opinions.

Return To The Allan Saxe Opinion Page

Return to WBAP Home Page