America can no longer rely on own strengths

America can no longer rely on own strengths
EDITOR:
I write this a couple hours after the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center. It is terrible to think that any person or group of people could want to carry out such terrorist attacks. This shows that no matter how safe we think we are or no matter how great a nation we live in, we can never be certain of anything if we trust in ourselves and our own strength.
Maybe now, many around the world and in America will see better Israel's necessity to deal with and try to prevent the terrorist attacks, bombings and shootings which occur so frequently against the Israeli citizens. Maybe now, many will understand Israel's need to stop the leaders of these terrorist groups threatening and destroying the lives of the people.
No people truly desiring peace can carry out these suicide and terrorist attacks. Those responsible should be stopped. No one would rightly criticize the U.S. if we are responsible for the end of Osama bin Laden, and no one can rightly criticize Israel for the end of those who have been leading and planning the attacks against her citizens.
Maybe now, we in America will see that we cannot truly be safe trusting in our own wisdom and strength. Maybe now, we will realize the necessity of daily dependence upon the God of the Bible and of our Founding Fathers. The Pilgrims, Washington, Adams, Patrick Henry, John Jay, Franklin and so many more knew well the importance of trusting in and relying upon the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God has blessed America. But we have left Him.
We must turn back to Him, looking to His wisdom and ways instead of thinking we know more than God does and that our ways are better than His.
PAUL E. MILLER
McDonald
Mood in usually busy capital, quiet and somber
EDITOR:
I am from Grove City, Pa., born and raised in the area and now attending college on the American University campus here. I am writing to tell you of what I have experienced here in Washington today.
The campus flags all day have been at half mast due to the passing away of a student on Friday. Class remained in session until about 11 a.m. Then university officials went from room to room canceling classes. We were then told of an inter-religious prayer session and told to go to our dorms.
From the campus, the smoke of the Pentagon fires are visible, and there are fighter jets flying over head regularly. The city itself is very quiet and somber in mood. The usual screaming traffic is moving at a very somber and conservative pace today. The city is under a state of emergency.
COREY MURPHY
Washington, D.C.
World should defendIsrael from annihilation
EDITOR:
Colin Powell did the right thing in refusing to attend the U.N. conference on racism. In the search for "cosmic justice," as Thomas Sowell puts it, must everyone become a shakedown artist? The reason for not attending is most worthy: namely, picking on Israel.
The whole world should be defending the great new state of Israel. It is the only possible answer to Hitler. We cannot let Israel be destroyed. The world owes Israel. We owe Israel: remember when the ship of refugees begged asylum from the U.S? To our everlasting shame, FDR sent them back to the death camps. He refused them sanctuary. Ancient Egypt, medieval Spain and now modern Germany and America have dark blots on their dossiers on that account.
Israel must face the bloody truth: only by outright war can they settle this problem: Arafat's guerrilla war or Israel's war: attack followed by evacuation and separation, as Charles Krauthammer painfully lays out.
For the first time in history, Israel is fighting for its own country. Never before could they claim their own land. Never forget what it takes: Remember the 753- day long battle of Stalingrad? Remember the god-awful carnage in our own Civil Wr at Wilderness and Cold Harbor? Lincoln feared guerrilla warfare and knew the hellish price he'd pay. He paid that price. Remember D Day? Iwo Jima?
The first monotheists created a concept so powerful, intense and focused it could survive pogroms, putsches, purges, Holocaust. Five thousand years of a disciplined, focused intelligence has helped to make the difference between excellence and mediocrity. One could say Judaism is the fatherlode -- the source of Western culture because everything started there, even Christianity and Islam. Five thousand years of Diaspora and flight must stop now or never. If Israel vanishes and the world watches without raising a finger, we shall suffer a moral and spiritual decline few could recover from. Israel is the crown jewel of Western civilization.
Colin Powell and President Bush did the right thing.
NATALIE HAYES
Brookfield
Massacre demands in-kind response
EDITOR:
The favored formula of surgically placed retaliatory strikes to limit civilian casualties just went out the window -- the 100,000 windows of the World Trade Center. Did the pond scum that delivered this attack care that it massacred thousands of innocent people? Respond in kind!
M.J. WATTS
Girard