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Jewish World Review Sept. 14, 2001 / 25 Elul, 5761
Michael Ledeen
All three were singled out by the
Left for slanderous attacks,
dehumanizing slogans, the usual
stereotypes. Had there been a
feminist movement worthy of the
name, they would have been its
heroines; instead, because they
rejected the fashionable causes,
insisted on traditional virtue, fought
limits on real choices, and
relentlessly exposed the emptiness
of the Leftist slogans, they became
the feminists' targets.
Now there are two. And what a
loss we have suffered. Barbara Olson was a life force, a
protean woman who lived life as it is supposed to be lived,
celebrating the good times to the full, enduring its worst
moments with grim resolve, supporting her friends and allies
at all times, taking the fight to her enemies with joyful
enthusiasm. She had one of the quickest and finest minds in
Washington. Married to one of the greatest attorneys of our
time, she was the equal of anyone in legal and political
debate. But above all, she was our Braveheart, leading us
into battle with the cry of "Freeeeeedom," carrying the flag of
proud independence.
Braveheart to the end, fighting to the last. She had the
presence of mind and the force of will to call Ted from her
doomed aircraft to ask, "What should I tell the pilot to do?"
Unwilling to go quiet into the dark night she wanted marching
orders, for herself and for the people around her. She would
not cow in the rear of the plane and submit to the murderous
instructions of her captors; she wanted to go down fighting.
Perhaps she did. A person from the White House told me
that there is reason to believe that plane/bomb was intended
for the presidential residence, not the Pentagon, and that
something happened to make it swerve suddenly. I like to
think that at the last, Barbara charged the cabin, survived the
knife thrusts of the monsters, and hurled herself at the
kamikaze pilot, putting the plane into a loop toward Virginia.
A great woman, a woman of immeasurable valor, who
brought a singular light into our lives. To see Ted with her
was to understand the power of an enduring love. He was so
proud of her, so delighted by her, so totally overcome with
her love for him, that he knew he was the luckiest of men.
The death of such a person cannot be accepted, cannot be
digested and must be avenged. Her killers are many, from the
evil men on the plane to their supporters and Svengalis
around the world, to all those among us who dehumanize
their political opponents and thereby facilitate the transition
from the politics of personal destruction to the physical
destruction of their opponents. She was killed by a fraudulent
and arrogant establishment that pretended it was capable of
providing our people with good security and our leaders with
good intelligence. Why are they permitted to remain at their
posts? And not least of all, she was killed by a corrupt elite
that celebrates murder, provided that the killers hold the right
views and slaughter those who are political lepers. "No
Regrets for a Love of Explosives" babbles the New York
Times headline atop a disgraceful puff piece on
Weathermen killers that appeared on the day of Barbara
Olson's murder.
My America, the real America, abhors these people, as
Barbara did and as the two surviving Barbaras do. And, in
the course of our revenge against the physical killers, the state
sponsors, the sources of the money, the dance masters in the
streets of the Middle East who reveled in our misery, the
leaders of the Hate America and Kill the Jews crowd, we
must retain our capacity for righteous indignation against
those among us who bear a heavy moral responsibility for it.
If she were still here, Barbara would have led that charge.
But there are plenty of us
08/22/01: How Israel will win this war
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