Waking Up To The Realization that We are At War

Hatred For America and It's Values

On September 11, 2001, the United States entered into a war. It was a war that started like other previous wars in the past, an invaders crosses the shores to the U.S. territory and inflict untold damages to the U.S. in the manner of loss of life and property is one method in suing for war. In the case of 9/11 when it was discovered who the perpetrators were and who led the attack, the resources of the U.S. Government were applied to compel these outside forces to submit or suffer the consequences to the might of U.S. Forces. They did not comply and as a result, new enemies of the state were born derived from some by the arrogance and hubris of some U.S. Cabinet members and from the creation of new forms of terrorism born out of new waves of religious fanaticism. Terror cells are the 21^st century enemies and the lone wolf proprietor. And that brings us to the early morning hours of June 11, 2016 at the Pulse Club in Orlando, Florida.

One lone man, armed with an AR-15 assault weapon and a 9mm Glock pistol, entered the establishment and took the lives of 49 people and injured 53 others to date. The Pulse Club was a LGBT establishment and the reason as to why the lone gunman chose that location is still up for speculation as he was killed in a shootout with the police. We will never know his reasons why. But others will offer up more than their speculations as to why he chose that spot.

We've heard for the president, Barack Obama, and we've heard from the would be contenders to the office, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, on their assessment on this most recent U.S. tragedy and I for one would like for them to shut the hell up. Thank goodness for the TV mute button. Obama described this action as an act of terrorism and an act of hate. Well, it was and has been all about hate and it has nothing to do with the victims being LGBT when you examine it with a more discerning eye, it had more to do with them being U.S. citizens living a normal live that was diametrically opposite to someone's radical belief system who fell under the influences of an organized sect hell bent on wiping out Western centrist behavior.

There is the typical knee jerk response to this tragedy and that is understandable and comes with the territory. It's the overwhelming shock to a horrendous crime. An enclave to the LGBT lifestyle had come under attack. But let's take a moment and step back and look at this with more analytical eyes. When the events of 9/11 occurred, it was a cross section of Americans who were lost on planes and buildings, 2997, not including the hijackers. The number of nationalities was like the United Nations of victims. And they were mostly U.S. citizens. The attacks in Paris of the Bataclan theater left 130 dead. In Paris still, the attack on the Charlie Hebdo publication and the Jewish supermarket left 17 dead. In a Brussels, Belgium airport, 32 died in an explosion orchestrated by terrorist. In this country at the Boston Marathon, 3 people were killed and 264 were severely injured. And in all of these cases, the underlining root to this evil was hatred towards western ideology.

Osama bin Laden was the leader of Al-Qaeda and with the addition of the Taliban, became the leading terrorist organization in the Middle East. And then from ill conceived Iraqi invasion and the dethroning of Saddam Hussein, the Islamist State was born, an organization the Obama once described as the JV of terrorist organization, in other words, it shouldn't be taken as a serious threat but in a few short months it became a monster overpowering Al-Qaeda in its ruthlessness and its outreach. It had converts from all parts of the globe from the UK to the United States. Young people were leaving home to join up. And for those who couldn't come, there was the Internet, an effective tool used to convince those impressionable minds to turn away from those Western ways and to strike a blow against those ideals.

And yet we still are arguing over gun control. In the Orlando shooting, the terrorist purchased his weapons legally. He wasn't on anyone's watch list that prevented him from purchasing the weapons. There are some who are still clamoring for better gun control laws but here is something to think about. The Boston Marathon bombers used two pressure cookers to unleash their devastation. Timothy McVeigh used ammonia nitrate to create a bomb in the Oklahoma City bombing. Should there be a 10 day hold on people buying pressure cookers? It is illogical to think in a linear fashion with terrorist. If there is a way to create destruction, a madman home grown terrorist will find a way to do it.

Since Obama has taken office, he has given 16 speeches on events surrounding a suspect committing mass murder. We've had Sandy Hook and 28 victims, 20 of those were children. We've had the South Carolina church shooting that left 9 dead and we've had the San Bernardino office shooting that left 14 dead and 22 injured. The last two were hate inspired killings just like Orlando but should one tragedy rise to a more aggravated level than the other when in fact they are all the same and carry the same amount of weight and significant as the others?

These men and women who kill in the name of some ideal zealotry have made a justification for their actions. But this country must stop being naive when it comes to these atrocities. This nation was built on atrocities. We had slaves for centuries and treated them inhumanely and worse than some livestock. We've committed atrocities on the Native American indigenous First People and in some cases, wiped out entire villages by the U.S. Calvary because one man had a problem with Indians other than the fact that they were just Indians. We used to hang black men for either looking at or whistling at white women. During the Vietnam War we slaughtered villages because the men were ordered to. We dropped bombs on countries to end wars. When it comes to being bad, we give just as good as we take.

So, here we are again, looking ahead to funerals. The LGBT community is seeing this as an attack on their lifestyle but in truth, it was an attack on every bodies' lifestyle. It wasn't about being gay or straight or black or white or Latino or Asian or Jewish or Hindu, it was about being strictly an American and all that comes with that because the enemy saw this as an attack on America.

We are at war now. We've been at war but we don't want to admit it to ourselves. We have a different kind of enemy, one that works in the shadows, one that works along side of you, one that smiles in your face everyday but secretly detest everything that you stand for. We have been at this war for a long time but has failed to wake up to who this enemy is. Do we succumb to the inevitable that we must live in the same manner as Israel, forever vigilant to an unseen enemy who sits down to lunch with you? Do we accept this latest version of reality that from this day forward, we have become hostages to our own making or do we stand to see some of our liberties erode under some vague national security regulation to ensure our safety or do we just continue on and marshal through until the next tragedy occurs and once again we'll here from the same voices repeating the same refrains.

The Islamist State is a cancer. It infects the minds from any location. Maybe that presidential candidate has a point, drop a bomb on them to rid us from this scourge. Desperate measures for a desperate nation.