A history of terrorism

by Stan Lowe, Chairman (retired), Wyoming Veterans’ Commission
Tuesday, July 1, 2008 2:07 PM MDT

The success of the “surge” of additional troops, which reassured Iraqis that America was not pulling out to leave them unprotected from massacre by vengeful al Qaida butchers, has offset the national news media’s and Washington politicians’ usual negative views.

It changed the picture in Iraq substantially. Even the media are beginning to admit conditions in Iraq have improved.

American and Iraqi forces, assisted by Iraqi armed civilian groups and ordinary citizens, have eliminated or run off most al Qaida thugs and destroyed their caches of bombs and weapons.

Yet, impatient Americans, hoping for a quick, easy solution to every problem no matter how difficult, complain that the fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq has lasted too long, and we should get out.

If seven years seems long, compare that with 36 years our fledgling nation fought Muslims during the Barbary Pirates’ War and 14 years in the war against Philippine Muslim Moros. Guerrilla fighting continued there another 22 years to 1935 when the Philippine Commonwealth took over.

Unfortunately, the problem remains yet today.

Many Americans mistakenly believe that the events of Sept. 11, 2001, were the radicals’ first attack against U.S. soil or in America. How wrong they are! America has been under constant attack since 1979.

Historians agree that the triggering event was the seizure of 52 Americans in the U.S. Embassy in Teheran, Iran on Nov. 7, 1979, by militant students of radical Islam.

The disastrous failure of the Carter administration’s efforts to rescue the Embassy personnel compounded the problem. It confirmed the “Paper Tiger” image they had of the U.S. after the Vietnam debacle.

After Teheran, Americans began to be kidnapped and murdered throughout the Middle East. Our government did little to protect its citizens living and working overseas.

Attacks on U.S. sovereignty abroad continued. Here is a brief recapitulation.

April 18, 1983: U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon -- 17 Americans killed, including eight top CIA officials.

Oct. 23. 1983: U.S. Marine barracks, Beirut International Airport -- 241 Marines killed, more than 100 others wounded.

Dec. 12, 1983: U.S. Embassy in Kuwait -- five killed, 80 others injured.

March 16, 1984: CIA station chief in Lebanon, William Buckley, fourth American kidnapped; first was American University of Beirut President David Dodge in 1982.

Thirty Westerners were kidnapped from 1982 to 1992 during Lebanese hostage-taking crisis; a few lived, others were murdered.

Sept. 20, 1984: U.S. Embassy annex, Beirut -- 24 civilians and two U.S. military killed.

Dec. 3, 1984: Kuwait Airways Flight 221 (flying Kuwait to Pakistan) hijacked. Two American passengers murdered.

April 1985: Madrid restaurant frequented by U.S. soldiers bombed.

June 14, 1985: TWA Flight 847 (Athens to Rome) -- landed at Beirut for 17 days. Hostage Robert Dean Stethem, a U.S. Navy diver, slaughtered.

October 1985: Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro hijacked. Four gunmen threw overboard wheelchair-bound American tourist Leon Klinghoffer.

August 1985: U.S. Air Force Base, Rhein-Main, Germany -- 22 killed.

January 1986: Rome and Vienna airports bombed; five Americans killed.

April 5, 1986: American soldier killed by bomb at La Belle, a West Berlin disco popular with off-duty U.S. servicemen; nearly 200 others wounded.

April 1986: TWA Flight 840 bombed; four killed.

Dec. 21, 1988: Pan Am Flight 103 (London to New York) exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland. All 259 people aboard killed; 169 were Americans.

January 1993: terrorists bring attacks to America n- two CIA agents shot and killed in Langley, Va.

February 1993: World Trade Center, New York -- bomb-laden van exploded killing six; 1000 more injured.

November 1995: U.S. military complex, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia -- seven service men and women killed.

June 1996: U.S. military compound, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia -- truck bomb destroyed Khobar Towers U.S. Air Force barracks; 19 killed, more than 500 injured.

Aug. 7, 1998: U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, bombed; at least 257 killed.

Oct. 12, 2000: USS Cole in Aden, Yemen bombed; l7 sailors killed.

Sept. 11, 2001: World Trade Center and Pentagon rammed by three passenger airliners; fourth one crashed in Pennsylvania. Killed 2,974, plus 24 missing and presumed dead.

America finally awakens and acts.

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