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Los
Angeles Times.com, Editorial, Sept. 24, 2001 THE
TERROR TEST AND THE SURVIVAL OF THE WESTERN WORLD The
bloody episodes of terror of September 11th, which occurred
simultaneously in New York and Washington, could in some ways be
interpreted as a huge testing of the North American and world public
opinion, at the hands of anti-Christian forces bent on the destruction
of the Western World. As pointed out by the German strategist Karl von
Clausewitz, the main objective in a war is to eliminate the adversary's
will to resist. Following that line of thought, the attack on September
11th proved, in the midst of tragedy, in an uplifting reality for the
Western world and undoubtedly uncomfortable for its adversaries: rising
above the pain, uncertainty and the irreversible changes in every day
life, the majority of the people of North American reacted in the spirit
of patriotism and with a determination to resist the enemy, with an
intensity difficult to predict after the nature of such attacks. Meanwhile,
in Latin America a phenomenon is taking place which causes great
apprehension: after the initial horror and consequent solidarity with
the victims, the public opinion has suffered a subtle but effective
pressure from leftist forces, through the media, to try to blame what
happened on the United States, presenting the victims as those which
launched the attacks. In an attempt to obtain this unacceptable roll
reversal, the same mechanism that has been used so many times to absolve
the Communist regime of Cuba by making the exiled Cubans and the United
States the aggressors. This the same type of play with words by the left
that were used during the 1960's and the 1980's to justify the
aggressions in the continent of pro-Castro guerilla forces. Regrettably,
there are ecclesiastical voices, independent from their in tentions,
that are allowing themselves to be used in that dangerous game. For
example, the influential Brazilian Archbishop Mons. Luciano Mendes de
Almeida, who served in a prominent position in the Catholic Conference
of Brazil and in CELAM, said referring to the attacks of September 11th:
"It is because of the extreme amount of poverty and the domination
of some countries over others, that things of this nature occur." This
type of talk is occurring mainly in Latin America put it can also be
heard in Europe and even in the United States, with the collaboration of
those mechanisms that protect the so called anti-globalization
movements. In the concrete order of the acts which occurred we are in
the presence of an alliance between leftist forces remnants of Communism
and radical Moslem movements, in which the dictator Fidel Castro places
his expectations of survival. All
of this brings us to a fundamental theme, in which we have insisted upon
an uncountable amount of times, when it comes to the defense of the
Western world and the cause of freedom of Cuba: the importance of
publicity. In effect, it seems exaggerated to say after having witnessed
the destructive capacity of terrorism, but in reality the decisive
battle continues to be in the psychological and ideological fields. A
type of battle which is capable of destroying man spiritually, all the
while maintaining his physical health intact. We
decidedly enter into a world where chaos is multiplied by chaos. To
learn to survive in that atmosphere means not accepting it as something
natural but instead each time we need to prepare ourselves to have more
will to resist and more of a vigilant spirit. Without a doubt, the
results of the test of terror where not totally favorable for the
anti-Christian forces. But it is also true that we have before us an
arduous path, full of traps and things that are unforeseen. Let us learn
necessary lessons for the cause of freedom. Far
from the vicissitude of the present time and future circumstances, the
promise of the Most Holly Virgin in Fatima, Portugal, in 1917, which is
undoubtedly a motive for bright hope: "At last, my Immaculate Heart
will triumph". |