The Bravado of Fools

I've never been able to understand the ingratitude of people in Hawaii thinking that the war on terror (in Afghanistan and Iraq) "did not greatly affect their (tourism) business," when if it wasn't for the definitive response against terrorism to ensure that "no more American lives would be lost on American soil," saved Hawaii after 9/11/01.

Without that strong response, Hawaii would have lost everything -- just as it assuredly was a ghost town for a week after those attacks on 9/11, and many thought after nearly a decade of slow-death in Paradise, that was surely the end -- because the Carter years and Clinton responses, had assured them that nothing decisive could be done -- and the terrorists were free to torment the freedom-loving peoples of the world without even so much as a rebuke, because that would offend their sensibilities.

Hawaii is very vulnerable in that way and everybody realized that, but went into denial in order not to fully appreciate that reality.

If there is another incident that threatens the confidence to travel as freely as people have that has in fact brought on the present fuel consumption crisis, it is a certain death without the kind of overwhelming and unmistakable intent and resolve of President Bush to save you again.

It's about time you people acknowledged that rightly.