*** AMERICA WAKE UP! Speech given by US Navy Captain
Dan Ouimette, to the Pensacola Civitan Club Feb 19, 2003. Captain
Ouimette is the Executive Officer of NAS, Pensacola, FL. ***
_____________________________________________
Pensacola Civitan
19 Feb 2003
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."
Thank you very much.
Dan Ouimette
