Beirut

War was something that happened somewhere else.

Terrorism was something we watched on television from Beirut, Jerusalem, Belfast, or some other place that seemed impossibly far removed from everyday American life.

We knew intellectually that violence existed, but knowing something intellectually and watching nearly 3,000 people murdered on American soil are two entirely different things.

September 11th shattered the idea that geography, military power, or national wealth could somehow make us immune from people determined to kill us.

Uh, and, uh, we saw signs of it.

We, uh, we certainly did from, from Beirut to the, the Tehran embassy, forty-seven, the American embassy in Tehran forty-seven years ago.

And, uh, the rising tide of, of, uh, blood-curdling death is, uh, is, uh, still on a tear.

They're still, they're still at war against us.

Then he's off to the Middle East.

We're watching him from the war in the Middle East.

Then, then he's, uh, he's in, uh, Beirut, and the, you know, uh, mayhem in Beirut.

Then he's, he's in Tehran, and the Shah is being overthrown.

[upbeat music] I am texting, texting with a friend, and, uh, my friend and her husband, uh, longtime friends, great, uh, smart people.

And, and she's telling me, "Oh, Bill..." Her husband, Bill, lived in Beirut for three years.

Lived in Beirut for three years.

Became very friendly with, um, a guy, a Muslim man, a Lebanese guy in Beirut, and they'd regularly get together for a meal or just a coffee and hanging out.

And one day, Bill asked his Muslim friend, we'll call him Mohammed.

One day, Bill asked Mohammed, he said, "Do you really believe that all Christians should either convert to Islam or die?" And the Muslim man said, "Well, yes, yes." Well, you know, but they're friends, right? And he said, "Well, yes, all Christians should convert or die." And then he asked, "Well, would you even kill me?" Uh, his, uh, Muslim friend living there for three years.

You know, I mean, again, show me the, the Muslim peacemaker today, show me a Muslim peacemaker in history and, uh, and I'll, I'll give you a shekel.

But the, uh, the reality is that, uh, all of my b- uh, lifetime that, that I've been aware of, again, my stepfather was a TV news reporter going over to the Middle East for war after war, whatever, uh, uh, uh, '67 and '73 and, and, uh, in and out and, and then the, the Beirut bombing, and the taking over the embassy in Tehran.

Uh, my lifetime of experience whe- when it comes to Islam is that every time, uh, Islam, Islamic people, uh, rai- rear their heads, that, uh, there's a lot of blood all over the floor and everybody's dead.

Uh, and, uh, and nobody's saying, "Hey, hey, you know, you guys are right." Nobody coming out of the, the mosque in Mecca or the, the, uh, second mosque in Medina, they're not coming out and, and, uh, giving speeches about peace and, and living in harmony with, uh, with everyone around you.

It's not in chanceries, it's not, uh, you know, diplomats, it's not, uh, the, the petrol sheikhs.

Uh, it's what you hear in a, in a, a souk in Cairo, you know, in a cafe in Baghdad, or in a cafe in Beirut.

This is what really matters.

And the consensus in the Arab street, a little bit everywhere, is, of course, uh, the Emirates, they are essentially, uh, a Zionist branch.

We had the planes being crashed.

We had the Beirut bombing, the USS Cole bombing.

Those incidents were kind of in one basket.

And then things changed when we got to Iraq, that the bombs and the threats direct to military was where the terrorists were focused.

In 1983, Islamists, at the behest of the Iranians and members of what

would become Hezbollah, blow up the Marine barracks in Beirut, 241 Americans dead.

Now, I'm just listing some of the main ones.

There's a whole list of these, right? I mean, which is much more detailed.

You know what the only controversy was? Was because there was no security.

A guy was able to truck bomb this thing like it was Beirut 83, right? And so a lady yelled at Bill Clinton at a rally, you suck.

And he had her arrested and held for two days.

And that was a huge controversy.