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On normal days, I receive a whole lot of e-mails. Some are for business reasons, some are private e-mails, and a lot of the e-mails I am receiving are mails that are just being passed on to the next e-mail address owner. Some are funny, others are just rubbish. And very rarely, among these e-mails, there is one that makes me think about the content. The story which is following, was sent to me, and somehow staid in my mind. It comes from a Canadian woman that speaks her mind… well, I just like it, and instead of just forwarding it to my e-mail contacts, I am putting it over here. The story she’s tellling applies not only to Canada, the U.S.A, U.K or Australia, but to the major part of the Western world. Maybe she should get involved into politics, so that real action is taken!

Are we fighting a war on terror or aren’t we? Was it or was it not started by Islamic people who brought it to our shores on September 11, 2001 and have continually threatened to do so since?

Were people from all over the world, not brutally murdered that day, in downtown Manhattan, across the Potomac from the nation’s capitol and in a field in Pennsylvania?

Did nearly three thousand men, women and children die a horrible, burning or crushing death that day, or didn’t they?

And I’m supposed to care that a few Taliban were claiming to be tortured by a justice system of the nation they come from and are fighting against in a brutal insurgency.

I’ll start caring when Osama bin Laden turns himself in and repents for incinerating all those innocent people on 9/11.

I’ll care about the Koran when the fanatics in the Middle East start caring about the Holy Bible, the mere belief of which is a crime punishable by beheading in Afghanistan.

I’ll care when these thugs tell the world they are sorry for hacking off Nick Berg’s head while Berg screamed through his gurgling slashed throat.

I’ll care when the cowardly so-called ‘insurgents’ in Afghanistan come out and fight like men instead of disrespecting their own religion by hiding in mosques.

I’ll care when the mindless zealots who blow themselves up in search of nirvana care about the innocent children within range of their suicide bombs.

I’ll care when the Canadian media stops pretending that their freedom of speech on stories is more important than the lives of the soldiers on the ground or their families waiting at home to hear about them when something happens.

In the meantime, when I hear a story about a CANADIAN soldier roughing up an Insurgent terrorist to obtain information, know this:

I don’t care.

When I see a wounded terrorist get shot in the head when he is told not to move because he might be booby-trapped, you can take it to the bank:

I don’t care.

When I hear that a prisoner, who was issued a Koran and a prayer mat, and fed ’special’ food that is paid for by my tax dollars, is complaining that his holy book is being ‘mishandled,’ you can absolutely believe in your heart of hearts:

I don’t care.

And oh, by the way, I’ve noticed that sometimes it’s spelled ‘Koran’ and other times ‘Quran.‘ Well, Jimmy Crack Corn you guessed it,

I don’t care!!

If you agree with this viewpoint, pass this on to all your E-mail friends sooner or later, it’ll get to the people responsible for this ridiculous behavior!

If you don’t agree, then by all means hit the delete button. Should you choose the latter, then please don’t complain when more atrocities committed by radical Muslims happen here in our great Country! And may I add:

‘Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world.

But the Soldiers don’t have that problem.’

I have another quote that I would like to add AND… I hope you forward all this.

One last thought for the day:

Only five defining forces have ever offered to die for you:

1. Jesus Christ

2. The Canadian Soldier.

3. The British Soldier.

4. The US Soldier, and

5. The Australian Soldier

One died for your soul, the other 4 for your freedom.

YOU MIGHT WANT TO PASS THIS ON, AS MANY SEEM TO FORGET ALL OF THEM.

I do agree with everything this woman is writing, except for the very last part. First of all, I don’t care about the guy who died about 2000 years ago, but it is not only Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia that have lost soldiers for our freedom. Believe it or not, also Belgians have given their lives. As have the Dutch, the French and far too many other countries.

So except for that, I totally agree.

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I remember a conversation I had with a couple of collegues which took place more than twenty years ago. We were having dinner together, and all of a sudden, we started talking about war. We were still in the middle of the cold war, when Ronald Reagan was President of the United States of America. A couple of my older collegues, who had experienced the second World War as a child, feared we were at the dawn of the third World War. I remember telling them that I was pretty convinced we were never going to see such kind of war in Europe again, but already then, I expressed my concern of terrorist actions through bomb attacks. After all, in Belgium, the CCC had just been arrested, and this terrorist organisation had shown the “power” of putting bombs in different places, and by letting them explode and killing innocent firemen who were just doing their job, they were taking a whole Belgian nation into hostage. I remember the question was raised what we could do to protect ourselves against these attacks, except for hoping not to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Juval Aviv has strong ideas about that. He says that we need to engage and educate ourselves as citizens. However our governments continue to treat us, the citizens, like babies. Our governments think we “can’t handle the truth” and they are concerned that we’ll panic if we understand the realities of terrorism. According to Juval Aviv, this is a deadly mistake.

Aviv recently created a security test for the American Congress, by placing an empty briefcase in five well-traveled spots in five major U.S. cities. The results? Not one single person called 911 or sought a policeman to check it out. In fact, in Chicago, someone tried to steal the briefcase.

In comparison, Aviv says that citizens of Israel are so well “trained” that an unattended bag or package would be reported in seconds by citizens who know to publicly shout “unattended bag”. The area would be quickly and calmly cleared by the citizens themselves. But the Western world hasn’t been yet “hurt enough” by terrorism for our governments to fully understand the need to educate the citizens or to understand that its citizens are the best first-line of defense against terrorism.

Aviv also was concerned about the high number of children in the United States who were in preschool or kindergarten after 9/11, who were “lost” without parents being able to pick them up, and about schools that had no plan in place to best care for the students until parents could get there. In New York city, this was days in some cases.

He stresses the importance of having a plan, that’s agreed upon within your family, to respond in the event of a terroristic emergency. He urges parents to contact their children’s schools and demand that the schools, too, develop plans of actions, as they do in Israel. Does your family know what to do if you can’t contact one another by phone? Where would you gather in an emergency? He says we should all have a plan that is easy enough for even the youngest children to remember and follow.

Aviv says that the U.S. government has in force a plan that, in the event of another terrorist attack, will immediately cut-off everyone’s ability to use cell phones, blackberries, etc., as this is the preferred communication source used by terrorists and is often the way that their bombs are detonated.

How will you communicate with your loved ones in the event you cannot speak? You need to have a plan.

Just something to think about… but in the meantime, don’t forget to live and have fun.

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