Neal Boortz
Tuesday, Oct. 16, 2001

I want to try to expand on this on a later date ... but solicit your ideas now. Do the world’s Muslims really care about the image their religion is presenting to others?

Now, I know that there are Islamic leaders who are supportive of America’s war on terrorism and who condemn Osama bin Laden and all that he stands for. But these leaders are drowned out by the 389 different calls for a "holy war” we hear from various Muslim loudmouths around the world.

It seems that if you find a worm in your apple the only right thing to do is to declare a holy war against apple merchants.

From where I sit, the image of Islam that is being presented around the world is one of a violent and predatory religion steeped in fanatical oppression of women and the rights of all non-Muslim peoples (unbelievers.) Muslim fanatics are absolutely free to slaughter as many innocent people as they wish -- and then scream blood murder when retribution calls.

Now bear in mind -- I’m not saying that this is what Islam IS. I’m saying that this is what Islam appears to be. These fanatics who bow at the feet of Osama bin Laden are just as dangerous to true Islam as they are to Americans. Are true Muslims going to stand by while their religion becomes universally hated?

Civilian Casualties -- Oh, My!

Yeah … there are civilian casualties. There were about 5,000 in New York. There will be some in Afghanistan and wherever else the U.S. feels it necessary to pursue this war against terrorism. The difference? The terrorists target civilians. We don’t.

These people who are screaming about civilian casualties -- just who are they? To get a complete picture of these people, to fully understand them, you need to look at the other elements of their agenda.

These are people who are not particularly fond of America and the American way of life. They are people who want the American way of life to end. They want an end to individualism. They want an end to individual excellence, competition and achievement, an end to the accumulation of wealth. An end to capitalism. An end to free enterprise.

They know that the way to derail America’s fight against terrorism is to highlight and exploit the deaths of innocent civilians. America must be presented as cruel and uncaring -- wantonly killing women and children. The more people who take up this cry, the more America’s moral authority to pursue the war on terrorism erodes. This is the goal.

By crippling the ability of the United States to respond to acts of terror or aggression they know that they will hasten the day when they can celebrate the America of their dreams -- egalitarian America, where peace is defined as the absence of political opposition and freedom is defined not in terms of freedom to excel but rather in terms of freedom from want.

An America where, as an 11-year-old product of government education so adroitly put it, "everybody has the same amount of stuff." This socialist utopia cannot be achieved if America is allowed to fight for freedom unmolested.

Can I put this any more bluntly? Yeah -- I think so. The people in this country who demand an end to America’s military actions against terrorism on the grounds that there are or might be civilian casualties? These people are fighting for the terrorists as surely as the terrorists themselves are.

The Panic Continues

I swear ... if I were a terrorist in the Middle East, or one of their supporters, I would be laughing my ass off at the antics of Americans right now. Mashed potatoes, confetti, crumbled Sheetrock, coffee creamer, sand, sugar, talcum powder, chocolate -- you name it and some scared-mindless American has called it in as anthrax.

• Montgomery County, Md. Rescue workers called when someone finds a few granules of Sweet ‘n Low on the hood of their car.
• A team rushes to the Department of Agriculture in D.C. -- anthrax in the bathroom! Turns out to be particles of drywall.
• Charlottesville, Va. Pink dust on the steps to Madison Hall at the University of Virginia. Chalk dust.
• Baltimore Harbor tunnel -- closed in both directions yesterday for more than an hour. A motorist reports white power on the roadway. Turns out to be salt.

Tom Brokaw solemnly declares, "I may have been exposed.” Well, big deal, Tom. Thousands of workers who sort sheep’s wool for a living are exposed every day of their working lives -- and for a lot less money than you make. Let’s alert the media.

Caution? Sure. But this has gone way beyond caution. We’re on the verge of panic on such a scale that a man with a particularly bad case of dandruff might be mistaken for a terrorist and assaulted on the streets.

Look, Only One Person Has Died -- Compare That to 400,000

I want to know: In both of those positive anthrax cases in Boca Raton, were those guys smokers? Word is that smokers are more likely to get anthrax from inhalation than are non-smokers. And that is as it should be. You spend your life engaged in a conscious and willful attempt to destroy your lungs … and you end up more susceptible to anthrax. Go figure.

Now that we’ve brought up smoking, could someone please tell me why all of America is so overwrought about 12 people who have tested positive for exposure to anthrax?

OK -- so someone out there is sending little envelopes full of anthrax to various people. You’re right, they ought to be caught and charged with murder.

But while we gnash our teeth over this unknown person or persons mailing out this anthrax powder, we completely ignore, and in some cases celebrate, a few huge corporations who are filling the shelves of the nation’s convenience stores with a deadly drug that is going to kill more people this year than died in the Vietnam war.

So one person has died of anthrax? How about 400,000 dying from nicotine ... from cigarettes!

You’re right. The people sending out the anthrax know that they are going to harm people. Well, so do the people selling the cigarettes.

OK -- you want to tell me that anthrax is targeted randomly while cigarettes only wipe out those who choose to smoke them? Fine, then I’ll ask you about secondhand smoke.

All I’m trying to do is put some things into perspective and maybe raise an eyebrow or two. There seems to be something a bit odd about some cigarette smoker somewhere worrying about exposure to anthrax. Goes with the territory, I guess.

But She's OK, Right? Please Tell Me She's OK

Yesterday I told you about a little incident involving Queen Hillary at the Westchester County Airport in New York. It seems that Hitlary’s entourage tried to bypass a security checkpoint at the airport on the way to a private hangar where a private jet was waiting to take The Hildebeast to a private location. Yesterday we didn’t know the extent of the injuries suffered by the cop that tried to stop the entourage from entering the airport. Today we know more. It seems the cop was banging on Hillary’s window yelling, "Hey, what the hell are you doing?” He sprained his elbow and was taken to the hospital.

What amused me so much yesterday was the report by a cable television news station with the headline "Hillary Is OK.” Now we know the cop is OK, too. Oh, and Hillary was in that car the cop was trying to stop. Evidently he didn’t know that the smartest woman in the world was inside.

Oh … and the press has finally picked up on this. Here’s a link to an article in the Washington Times.

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20011016-506304.htm

P.C. Insanity in California

And you thought the sight of Georgia National Guardsmen patrolling airports, armed only with their 9mm pistols, was silly. It still doesn't hold a candle to what's going on in California.

In last Saturday's edition of the Los Angeles Times there's a nice big photograph of an armed California National Guardsman stationed at the airport in Orange County. You can't see the Guardsman's face, but you can see the M-16 automatic rifle he's holding at his side.

There's one problem. One very big problem. There's no ammunition magazine in the weapon! Anyone who's ever handled an M-16 or its civilian equivalent, the AR-15, can see it. It's highly unlikely that there's a round in the chamber of this gun. We can only hope this Guardsman is carrying his ammunition magazines in a pouch on his belt. But without ammunition, this gun might as well just be an expensive club.

What message does this photograph send to terrorists? Come to Orange County, where our airport is guarded by soldiers armed with fancy metal and plastic clubs! What a nice, juicy target! Kudos to the editors of the Los Angeles Times for being so stupid as to print this invitation to terrorists.

On the other hand, maybe it's a good thing the L.A. Times printed this picture. Now the issue of unarmed National Guardsmen is out there for everyone to see. This issue would have to be addressed sometime. It might as well be now, before those Guardsmen are forced to use their weapons.

A show of force at our nation's airports doesn't achieve much if you know the guards aren't armed.

Neal Boortz is the hugely popular nationally syndicated radio host.