Subject: amended remarks from General Dick Hawley, USAF, ret.
I originally received an e-mail, attributed to General Richard
Hawley, from a reliable source.
Evidently that source wasn’t all that reliable; I worked closely
General Hawley at Langley and didn’t think the piece was his “style.” So, today
I received from another very reliable source a correction to the first e-mail
attributed to General Dick Hawley. I hope we have it right this time.......
General Hawley’s response to an email crediting him with the
remarks originally published follows.
There is a piece zooming around the internet that attributes some
pretty forceful statements to me, Dick Hawley - one time fighter pilot,
General, thoughtful consultant, neophyte strategist, master of the artful
compromise. The words did not flow from my pen, but if the e-mails mean
anything, those words are now indelibly linked to my name. So do me a favor -
if you receive this, please send it on to the same people to whom you forwarded
the one that I did not write. It’s not that I don’t share many, if not most, of
the sentiments attributed to me, but the piece is just not my style.
Here’s what I would have said if I’d been asked to comment on those
five important issues.
1) Goodness, Evil and Relativity: There are some really good people in this world.
They volunteer to help those who need it, and ask nothing in return. There are
also some really bad people in this world. They exploit those who need help, or
who have less wit or “charisma”, and motivate them to join in committing
unspeakable acts of cruelty against people they don’t even know. Then there are
the rest of us. Average people who try each day to do no harm, to provide for
their families, to do an occasional act of kindness. The evil that was
perpetrated against our land on 9/11 was the product of Mullahs who see our
prosperity and power as a threat to their control over the uneducated Muslim masses
on whose shoulders they ride through life. And so they preach hate. They are
evil.
2) Violence begets violence: It’s true. Violence does beget violence. But
sometimes there is no alternative but to confront those who would perpetrate
evil acts against us. This is one of those times. We are blessed to have
courageous men and women willing to put their lives on the line to track down
and annihilate those who have been so imbued with evil as to be beyond
redemption. But violence is not a strategy. It is a necessary and fully
justified reaction to an unimaginable threat. But it is not a strategy. If we
are to win this war, we must defeat the Mullahs. And to defeat the
Mullahs, we must find ways to separate them from their uneducated
flocks. We cannot kill all those who have been taught to hate us, nor should we
wish to. Far better to change their minds than to change their state of being.
3) The intelligence community let us down: Well, maybe just a little.
Lots of senior and not so senior intelligence people became just as enamored of
high tech gadgets as their political masters. The protests over our
evisceration of the human intelligence component of the agency were not very
loud or forceful. Keeping spies on the ground is a high risk and often dirty business,
and it wasn’t just liberal politicians who didn’t have much stomach for it.
4) Poverty is the breeding ground for terrorists: No, it isn’t; but religious
extremism is. The Mullahs fear our wealth and power because it shows that a
secular society with democratic institutions and a free market economy can do a
better job of taking care of its peoples’ needs, both spiritual and physical,
than the oppressive Islamic regimes that they aspire to lead. The Mullahs are
the problem, not poverty, but poverty does make it easier for the Mullahs to
spread their evil - as do governments that tolerate and even reinforce their
hateful message.
5) Profiling: We are at war here! We are not talking about traffic stops.
If we were at war with Iceland, I would expect those charged with
our defense to pay very close attention to any Icelander who ventured near our
shores. In this war I expect them to pay very close attention to Muslims with
ties to the places that spew hatred against us. Random checks when there are no
such obvious targets available are a good way to keep the evil ones guessing,
but let’s not make small children and grandmothers take their shoes off while
we watch far more likely candidates walk aboard unchecked.
6) Resolutions:
a. Never forget that what happened on September the 11th
of 2001 was an act of war.
b. Never sit silently by while someone tries to justify what
happened on that day as an understandable reaction to U.S. policies in the
Middle East or elsewhere.
c. Fly our nation’s flag proudly - it represents this world’s
greatest hope to move beyond the pain and suffering that inflict so many across
the globe.
Richard E. Hawley
General, USAF, Retired
Former Commander, Air Combat Command