Ed Wood "The Right Stuff" Published April 17, 2002

A test of faith

Readers of these columns will recall a recent article which raised the following point: If the Bush administration is successful in its war against terror, then nothing exciting will happen. It seems we are at that point, and there are many who don't like it.

Based upon evidence obtained from documents discovered in Afghanistan, coupled with testimony received from al Qaeda "detainees" in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, there was credible evidence that another terrorist attack was scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 12.

The FBI identified on its Web site - www.fbi.gov - Fawaz Yahya al Rabeel, a Yemini national, and about a dozen fellow terrorists as being suspects, and it placed some 18,000 law enforcement agencies on another "high alert." The fourth such alert since Sept. 11. Feb. 12 came and went, and no attack. So Florida gubernatorial hopeful Janet Reno and others are now criticizing Attorney General John Ashcroft for creating unnecessary concern among the American people.

So things are kinda quiet for the moment, both at home and abroad. The 24-hour news media, with nothing to fill the 24 hours, are clamoring for military action against somebody ... one day it's Iran, then Iraq, then Somalia. Today it's Yemen. They don't seem to care just whom we attack, so long as we attack somebody. The Super Bowl and the Winter Olympics are all right for prime-time TV, but they don't get the ratings of a good air attack, preferably with a lot of fireworks.

While claiming to support the president's war effort, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-SD, complains that Bush has unfairly branded Iran, Iraq and North Korea as an "axis of evil" (which they are), and Democratic presidential hopeful Al Gore says Bush has turned the Clinton-Gore foreign policy "on its head" (which he has). But perhaps with some feeling of remorse, Mr. Gore does go on to say, "So this time, if we resort to force, we must absolutely get it right."

One can only assume the former vice president was referring to the previous administration's bombing of the aspirin factory in the Sudan, a deserted tent village in Afghanistan, and the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, not to mention their other military victories in Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, Kosovo, etc.

This is a time to keep the faith - faith that competent people are in control. Faith and belief that in this war effort, unlike any other, success means that the most exciting thing to watch on TV is the Westminster Dog Show.

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Ed Wood is a resident of Sparta, TN. His column is published each Wednesday in the Crossville Chronicle.