In August 1981, Ronald Wilson Reagan sat down with his cabinet
for a foreign policy briefing. The Navy had become increasingly
worried that there might be combat in the skies over the Gulf of
Sidra. They’d been conducting maneuvers near the Libyan coast, and
Colonel Muammar Qaddafi, never up to any good, had been sending his
planes to harass American pilots. Defense Secretary Caspar
Weinberger wondered aloud what the orders would be if Qaddafi fired
on American planes and then returned to Tripoli. “How far can we
go?” he asked.
“All the way into the hangar,” Reagan said, after a moment of
thought.
As has been widely reported, on October 15 three Americans were
killed and another was wounded when a remote-controlled bomb
exploded beneath an American diplomatic vehicle in the Gaza Strip.
The bomb went off as a three-car U.S. diplomatic convoy with a
Palestinian escort drove past a gas station on the outskirts of
Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip. The FBI almost instantly
committed a team of investigators to look into the matter.
The three men killed were security personnel traveling with
diplomats from the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, who were en route to
the education ministry, at which Palestinian candidates for
Fulbright scholarships were to be interviewed. Their bodies were
taken across the border to Israel.
Shortly after the attack, officials at the U.S. Embassy in Tel
Aviv advised all Americans to leave the Gaza Strip and to exercise
extraordinary caution in the West Bank. Further, they asked that
Israelis help evacuate Americans from the region.
Though manifestly a terrorist action, various terrorists have
been quick to condemn the attack. Yasser Arafat denounced the
assault and ordered an investigation, which one assumes will be
about as accurate as his friend Bill Clinton’s upcoming book.
Islamic Jihad spokesman Nafez Nazzam, also condemned the attack,
kindly acknowledging that “it’s not proper to target Americans.”
Hamas political leader Adnan Asfour told Reuters, “it’s not Hamas’
mission to expand its struggle, [only to end] the Israeli
occupation.”
In 1986 Libya bombed a West German discotheque, killing a U.S.
soldier and injuring several others. In response to the attack,
President Reagan instigated a major retaliatory strike against that
nation. As Time magazine reported at the time, “The U.S.
launched its bombers out of a grim conviction that ruthless attacks
on Americans and the citizens of many other countries will never
let up until terrorists and the states that sponsor them are made
to pay a price in kind.”
President Reagan, who also single-handedly brought down the
Soviet Empire, was far from coy when it came to Qaddafi’s Libya.
“We have done what we had to do,” he told the world in a televised
address. “If necessary, we shall do it again.”
It is this attitude, this bravery, with which George W. Bush has
thus far dealt with threats to our national security. There is no
better example of this than his riveting address of September 20,
2001: “Every nation in every region now has a decision to make.
Either you are with us or you or with the terrorists. From this day
forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism
will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime.” He must
act with this same conviction and courage in this current
matter.
We cannot allow terrorist attacks on American interests, whether
those interests are abroad or at home. A terrorist who attacks an
American in the Middle East should be treated by the United States
government with the same fervor as a terrorist who attacks an
American in Seattle or Chicago or Atlanta; terrorists do not
discriminate, and neither should we. This was a well-planned
attack, and our response should be well-planned. The people who did
this were angry. We should be, too.
President Bush has shown extraordinary leadership and incredible
strength in dealing with terrorism and threats to American
security. This mustn’t be an exception. Whether openly or covertly,
now or months from now, the U.S. must respond with might.
