WORLD WAR 3

“Excuse me, does anyone in the media or government have the guts to call this ugly thing what it really is? Well, here goes: World War III. Like it or not, that's what history will someday call it.”

-Michael Harrison, Publisher TALKERS Magazine

Dangerous is the man who fights with something to live for. More dangerous is the man who fights with nothing to live for. Most dangerous is the man who fights with something TO DIE FOR.

-Anthony

"We tell them, in as much as you love life, the Muslim loves death and martyrdom. There is a great difference between he who loves the hereafter and he who loves this world. The Muslim loves death and [strives for] martyrdom."

Chief Palestinian Authority cleric Mufti Sheikh Ikrimeh Sabri

"It will end with the triumph of Islam. It will end with the annihilation of Israel and the United States of America”
-Osama bin Laden
from his unpublished but widely circulated book:
America and the Third World War.

Just to name a few...the United States, Great Britain, Germany, Spain, Italy, Australia, Philippines, China, Russia, Algeria, the entirety of the Balkans, the Middle East, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Canada, Sudan, Yemen, Somalia, parts of central and South America, and the list goes on and on. Terrorist actions, cells, and or sympathizers of fanatical Islamic terrorism are now present in every corner of the globe. Literally encompassing the entire planet.

While not every cell may call itself al Qaeda, most of them share similar ideologies. And they are constantly aligning themselves more and more to defeat their common enemy even if some of their own beliefs vary. And their common enemy?

Anyone who does not believe their version of Islam is the correct one. (And that includes Muslims who practice their religion legitimately.)

People who like to downplay this global war are the same ones that had no idea who Osama bin Laden was prior to 9-11, they have never seen teenage girls with their heads sawed off by Islamic militants because they were on their way to church....the same church where one of their heads would be found sitting on the steps, they have never seen images of a boy no older than 9 having his arm run over by a truck because he stole something and that violated “Islamic law.” They have never picked up pieces of men, women, and children blown apart in bus bombings, train bombings, and building bombings, ALL OVER THE GLOBE, perpetrated by those who literally say that Islam (their brand) should rule the world.

I had a doctor tell me once, “Oh this terrorism thing, won't last, its about over.” That was almost 8 years ago. That doctor has since died. And the war still goes on.

Al Qaeda is no longer just a “group.” It is an ideology. An ideology that has followers or sympathizers to one extent or another on ever continent on this planet.

People who “are just ready for this to be over” are going to be sadly disappointed.

Closing your eyes to the darkness does not make the darkness go away. It just makes you even more vulnerable to what hides in that darkness.

The term World War 1 and World War 2 did not really even emerge until close to the end or after these global conflicts. We get too stuck on naming things. Just because the US, China, and Russia aren't exchanging nuclear weapons does not mean that this is not a world war.

It is a war declared by jihadists on everyone besides themselves. And if you are stupid enough to think that you have no part in it, then you are dead wrong.

If you think that you haven't done anything to incite Jihadist anger, then you are dead wrong. Because unless you believe like them then they consider you the enemy. The devil incarnate. You deserve to die as do your children. And no means is off the table. You forget that, and you are just plain dead.

Most Americans think that the worst school massacre was Columbine. But it was not. Not by a long shot.

It was in Beslan Russia. Where over 360 men, women, and children were held hostage in a gym in a school for several days before being killed by Chechen “rebels” as the media likes to call them. These “rebels” themselves called themselves jihadists and were and continue to be funded and supported with money and manpower from Middle Easter Islamic terrorist groups. They used the Koran as justification for shooting, stabbing, and blowing up children from infants to pre-teens as part of their jihad. They killed Russian children, almost 200 of them, for “God.” When you start to feel “something” for the poor oppressed people that “are driven” to terrorism...look up images from the Beslan massacre. And imagine those see through plastic bags hold your children.

Only a few years back, relatively speaking, Islamic terrorism was limited to the Middle East. Now take the time out from Starbucks and reality TV and use search engines with terms such as “jihad” and any country's name. You will almost always find sympathizers, supporters, and often full blown terrorist organizations in every country on the planet now. All with the nearly the same goal.

You join them or you die.

This war is global and will continue to escalate. Providing “food” or “education” to these people will relieve nothing. It will not stop it. Feeling sorry for their so called plight, which is a lie, will do nothing except provide the throats of relief workers as new flesh to slice for the next jihadist tapes. Tapes where young jihadists in training, 3,4,5 year olds are made to watch as indoctrination. (We tried to provide food and relief to Somalis in the early 90's. It was in fact, al Qaeda affiliated terrorists who kept the food and starved the remaining populace. The same terrorist affiliates who would later engage our troops in Mogadishu as portrayed in Black Hawk Down.)

Many of the terrorist leaders and suicide bombers themselves do NOT come from poor, impoverished, or repressed backgrounds. Many of them are doctors, some are scientists, and many of them have college educations and are not poor. Buzzwords, political correctness, and cliches, and quick fix mentality will not make this go away. EVER.

Jihadists do not do

what they do because of the situation they are in. They do what they do because of WHAT they believe in.

Long ago, bin Laden himself called this World War 3. He declared it. He started it even before 9-11.

And if given the chance by bleeding hearts, ignorant people, apathetic pseudo intellectuals, and the sheepish general populace...

he will finish it and unless we wake up and realize what this really is.

His ideology will win. And it will not matter if he is dead or alive. Others will replace him. Islamic Jihadist terrorism will not end until the ideology does. It does not matter who is the figurehead.

We fight because we have something to live for. The enemy fights not because they have nothing to live for (as pseudo-hippies would have you believe), but because they have something to die for. For them it is paradise to kill. For us it is hell.

For everyone it is World War 3.

Don't just take my word for it...

"The pieces of the bodies of the infidels were flying like dust particles. If you had seen it with your own eyes, your heart would have been filled with joy."

-- Osama bin Laden
in videotape at son's wedding; regarding attack on U.S.S. Cole inYemen

"When God has guided a bunch of Muslims to be at the forefront and destroyed America, a big destruction, I wish God would lift their position."

-- Osama bin Laden
Oct. 7, 2001; Internationally televised response to retaliatory attack by U.S.

"It is the duty of Muslims to prepare as much force as possible to terrorize the enemies of God."
-- Osama Bin Laden
1998, in statement titled: "The Nuclear Bomb of Islam"

"In today's wars, there are no morals. We believe the worst thieves in the world today and the worst terrorists are the Americans. We do not have to differentiate between military or civilian. As far as we are concerned, they are all targets."

-- Osama bin Laden
to ABC News 1998.

"Our work targets world infidels. Our enemy is the crusader alliance led by America, Britain and Israel. It is a crusader-Jewish alliance."
— Osama bin Laden

"Youths only want one thing, to kill you so they can go to paradise."
-- Osama bin Laden
in fatwa issued in 1996

(pictured, Taliban teaches 12 year old boy how to behead someone.)

"Terrorism can be commendable, and it can be reprehensible. The terrorism we practice is of the commendable kind for it is directed at the tyrants and the aggressors and the enemies of Allah."
Osama bin Laden
to journalist John Miller, 1998

"Being killed for Allan's cause is a great honor achieved by only those who are the elite of the nation. We love this kind of death for Allah's cause as much as you like to live. We have nothing to fear for. It is something we wish for."

-- Osama bin Laden
in CNN interview, 1997

Related Article:

Let's Call This War What It Really Is

By Michael Harrison, Publisher TALKERS Magazine

This article originally appeared in the November, 2001 issue of TALKERS Magazine.

Copyright 2001, Focus Communications, Inc.

Forgive me for seeming nit picky, but terminology is important - especially when explaining and defining concepts that involve not only life and death, but the very survival of our society and its values, as well.

That is why our use of the label "War On Terrorism" to describe the conflict in which America finds itself embroiled is both disturbing and dangerous. It reeks of the media-manufactured, politically spun logoism that gave us names for such monumental losers as the "War On Poverty" and the "War On Drugs." Let us pray that the so-called "War On Terrorism" does not meet a fate in any way similar to those failed campaigns.

Modern-era 24/7 cable news television has played a role in contributing to the pop-journalistic labeling of serious situations in its zeal to capitalize on the moment (and inarticulate politicians have done little to offer improvement). After all, what good are snazzy graphics and dramatic music if they do not have a catchy title to serve as a centerpiece for the production?

Thank you CNN for giving us "America's New War" (which is sort of like "new and improved" laundry detergent) that was hastily slapped on the screen immediately following the awful events of September 11. How about the title "America Strikes Back" that is currently being used by several key TV news outlets? How invigorating! Here's a tip of the hat to the creative genius of George Lucas for inspiring that nifty gem. Then there's "America's Mission" which gives the whole affair sort of a romantic, adventurous ambiance, like a television series or even a manned trip to Mars. Don't even get me started on the military's contribution to our nomenclature with "Operation Infinite Justice" and "Operation Enduring Freedom." Why don't we just bring back "The War To End All Wars"?

It is vitally important that we articulate concepts as accurately as possible so that we can discuss them with clarity while focusing on our challenge without being side tracked by muddy thinking, irrelevant issues, and collective denial. It is sadly ironic that while our culture has developed the bad habit of wanton hyperbole regarding the description of events, we are seriously (and uncharacteristically) understating the true nature of this conflict with the aforementioned terms and titles. By calling this the "War On Terrorism," we continue to bury our head in the sand. What exactly do we mean by this overly misused word, terrorism? We might just as well call our enemies bogeymen.

What happened on September 11 was not a tragedy (the term we hear over and over). It was an atrocity. Tragedy makes it sound like an accident…an unfortunate situation that we would want to put behind us. Some 5,000 American civilians were murdered in cold blood by a multi-national foreign entity that is on record as being bent on not simply conquering, but actually bringing our nation to extinction. This is far worse than a tragedy. It was the worst attack that America has ever suffered and it clearly indicates that our enemies really are serious! Can you imagine America in the early forties responding to Pearl Harbor by wanting to get "back to normal" as quickly as possible so those pesky Japanese and Germans didn't feel they could disrupt our precious lifestyles? Do you think FDR would have told Americans to react to the situation by going to Disney World? Does the Dow holding its own mean everything is okay?

Just a handful of short weeks ago, the President of the United States went before the entire world and eloquently stated that we are responding to the events of September 11 by going after the perpetrators of the attacks including the individuals that planned and executed them as well as the governments that support them. There would and could be no backing down from his powerful declaration. Officially declared or not, George W. Bush told every nation on the planet Earth, that the United States was now at war on a massive, long-term scale. His words were applauded by a wide majority of Americans and endorsed by the leaders of both parties.

Excuse me, does anyone in the media or government have the guts to call this ugly thing what it really is? Well, here goes: World War III. Like it or not, that's what history will someday call it.

Our generation grew up imagining World War III to be synonymous with Armageddon. We imagined it being a very rapid uncontrolled nuclear exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union (maybe with Red China) that would result in the end of the world, as we knew it. When the Cold War ended and we stopped worrying about mutually assured destruction, somehow we dropped the idea that a third world war could still happen within our lifetimes. Now that we are in the opening stages of the real World War III, we do not recognize it. This is a dangerous lack of perception. We are not fighting shadowy bogeymen. We are at war with real countries and real peoples who use terrorism as a weapon against our superior military muscle. We know exactly who they are and we can name them. So, America, are you really ready to roll?

World War III does not have to be Armageddon. It could actually turn out to be a short war with relatively light casualties (when compared to the first two world wars) and usher in a new era of international peace and understanding. However, if we do not clearly understand what we are dealing with here and address it for exactly what it is, this so-called War On Terrorism will neither go away nor be less likely to escalate into something far more clear cut and hideous.

(He says it better than I did or could.) - Anthony

Now, a video produced by pro-Al Qaeda supporters.