What a Difference a Day Makes by Arlene Peck

Arlene Peck

What a Difference a Day Makes

By Arlene Peck

What a difference a day makes... or, was that a year? I almost had to laugh yesterday when I saw a front page picture in the Los Angeles Times. Like they say, "A picture is worth a thousand words." and it depicted a dozen Iraqi men surrounded by barbed wire. The accommodating story had something about how the entire town of Tarquit was surrounded with fence and barbed wire and, there was now only one entrance into the city. A heavily guarded entrance too I might add. The reason for the barrier was obviously for 'damage control' and to protect the soldiers who were patrolling the town.

My, my, isn't that something? Funny, I can remember in our not so distant past when the State Dept and its leaders, and especially President Bush, were giving almost daily photo-ops about how 'angry' and 'disappointed' we were with Israel for building that nasty fence.

Hey, not so long ago, the State Department was proposing that the United States hold in the reins with Israel and, cut to almost nothing the badly needed loan guarantees if Israel continued building the barrier between Israel and the terrorists. Somehow they failed to mention that the need for the fence in the first place was because of the terrorist's attacks that made the separation fence necessary. Out of the hundreds of homicide bombings into Israel and its citizens, isn't it amazing how not one has come from Gaza? A place coincidentally where there is already a fence in place separating Gaza from Israel.

What I find even more interesting was that in the horrific Road Map, nowhere was a fence even mentioned. However, it did mention and specify in the Roadmap to Auschwitz that the Palestinians must cease the violence and dismantle their terror regime. None of that was even attempted, while Bush and Powell and the rest of the 'gang' continued to ignore the most important violation while continuing to get on Israel's case for a fence that wasn't even mentioned in any document.

Amazing now that the same Arab crazies are shooting our American planes down from the sky, how the 101st Airborne feel free to go into the Saddams hometown of Tikrit where most of the ambushes have been happening and bomb the hell out of the city. Wow, where are the same cries for 'restraint' that Bush and Powell were so recently demanding from the Israeli government after the same thing happened to them. Except, in the case of Israel, it wasn't five or six soldiers killed as in Iraq but maybe thirty innocent men, women and children who might have been having lunch in a seaside cafe and just happened to get in the way of the Palestinian terrorist's bomb? The double standard that is so often used when it comes to Israel just doesn't seem so palatable now that it's on the other foot and so close to home. Wait folks, until they start bombing inside of our coffee shops and departments stores like in Israel right here on our home turf in the United States.

It is inevitable that it is going to happen. I have repeated so often its getting boring how Israel was the canary in the tunnel. These Islamic fundamentalist love nothing better than to test our resolve by doing the only thing they know best, terrorism. They tried it out in the streets of Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem. Now, they have perfected it to the streets of Baghdad and surrounding neighborhoods. They are again testing Uncle Sam's resolve in continuing the war on terror.

Does it make me a bad person when I see that the Royal Family in Saudi Arabia is now having it hit them on the home front and I smile? I watched the evening news and saw the Saudi Prince saying how terrorism must be stopped and the evilness they do punished! Wow! Does that mean that they won't be having those big telethons anymore where they raise hundreds of millions of dollars to present the poor families of the 'martyred" victims? Or, does that just mean they'll continue to promote and pay for terrorism against the Jewish State and punish the terrorists within their own country?

However, I have to tell you one important thing. As an American who feels strongly about the State of Israel and her safety, I don't understand how the present government in Israel can vote to release four hundred terrorists so they can go and kill more civilians in coffee shops, schools, and buses so the bodies of three dead soldiers and one live business man can be released. Lord, what kind of message does this send? The lesson learned from this is that terror pays and guarantees future kidnappings and blackmail Nor, can I fathom what is in their minds when they silence the radio of Arutz Sheva because they are a little too much to the right for the powers that be.

Not so long ago my column was dropped, after thirty years from The Jewish Post & Opinion because the new regime thought my writing was too "mean to the Arabs". The Thought Police seem to be alive and well in Israel, much to the detriment of its people.

Are they so blind that they just 'don't get it' and realize that the final plan is for the State of Israel to disappear? It seems to be apparent to everyone, except the politicians who continue to make disastrous decisions. It should be obvious to everyone who lives on our planet that this is just not a war of terror. We are in a war of ideology and there are two billion Arabs out there who are waiting in the wings for the destruction of the West. Discussion is not an acceptable solution.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, November 1, 2003

UJA, Iraq Facing an increasing tide of attacks, American soldiers Friday cordoned off the village where Saddam Hussein was born, suspecting this dusty farming community of being a secret base for funding and planning assaults against coalition forces.

"There are ties leading to this village, to the funding and planning of attacks against U.S. soldiers," said Lt. Col. Steve Russell, a battalion commander with the 4th Infantry Division, which is based in nearby Tikrit.

The operation began before dawn with hundreds of U.S. troops and Iraqi police. They erected a fence of barbed wire, stretched over wooden poles, and laid spirals of razor wire around the village, a cluster of mud-and-brick homes set in orchards of pears and pomegranates about six miles south of Tikrit.

Checkpoints were set up at all roads leading into the village of about 3,500 residents, many of them Saddam's clansmen and distant relatives. It appeared the operation was not aimed at catching Saddam but at identifying those who live here and making sure that outsiders are quickly spotted. All adults were required to register for identity cards that U.S. officials said would allow them "controlled access" in and out of the village.

The intensive hunt for the deposed leader is spearheaded by the top secret Special Operations Task Force 20, and American officials in Iraq have said little about any progress. The United States has offered a $25 million reward for Saddam's capture.

On Oct. 13, Mal. Troy Smith, executive officer of the 1st Brigade of the 4th ID, told reporters that Saddam was "at the least" maintaining "a strong influence" in the Tikrit area and may have traveled through the region recently.

The next day, however, the 4th ID spokeswoman, Maj. Josslyn Aberle, said the military had no direct evidence that Saddam had been in Tik nt since Baghdad fell to American forces April 9. Saddam was last seen in public that same day in a Sunni Muslim neighborhood of Baghdad. Much of the hunt for Saddam appears to be focused in the area around Tikrit, where Saddam and other key followers could find shelter among family and clansmen.

Russell, during Friday's operation, noted that the village of Uja was unusual because so many key figures in the former government had roots in this area. Among them is Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, a longtime Saddam confidant whom U.S. officials suspect as a force behind some of the recent attacks. U.S. officials believe al-Douri has linked up with members of the Islamic extremist group Ansar al-Islam to stage attacks against coalition forces.

Despite strong support for Saddam in this area, there was no visible resistance to the American operation, and people lined up quietly outside a police station to register for ID cards.

"I chose right in coming here. We need the safety" said Ahmed al-Naseri, who told reporters he was a cousin of Saddam. "We need freedom."

Another self-described Saddam relative, All Sherif al-Naseri, said people had no choice but to comply with the American orders.

"It may not be totally fair, but it's a good idea~' he said. As the operation was under way groups of soldiers manned foxholes at strategic points around the village. Bradley armored vehicles also stood guard.

Russell emphasized that the registration system would benefit villagers who want to move forward now that their most famous son is out of power.

"We have provided security" he said. "We have provided a cordon. We are not limiting the movement of those that live in the town. Once they have a pass they have complete freedom of movement as they would at any other time."

Arlene Peck is a syndicated columnist and talk show host. She doesn't practice "political correctness," but tells it just like it is. This website is proud to present her work because we don't practice political correctness either. Visit Arlene's Homepage

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