The increased frequency with which Middle Eastern terrorists target Americans and U.S. installations is due in part to the terrorists' continued perception that America acts cowardly when under attack, according to former Central Intelligence Agency director R. James Woolsey.
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With President Jimmy Carter trying to negotiate the hostages' release in 1979 and 1980, the reaction of the average American was to "tie yellow ribbons around trees," Woolsey said. A few years later, when Hezbollah terrorists blew up the U.S. marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, Americans "ran," he added.

Throughout the 1980s, as Americans like Leon Klinghoffer on the cruise ship Achille Lauro were killed and others were kidnapped in Lebanon, "what did the Americans do? They sent the lawyers," Woolsey said.
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The Japanese, like al Qaeda, attacked the United States {to start WWII} in part because they considered the U.S. cowardly and unlikely to react forcefully. "Based on what we were doing in the 1920s and 1930s ... the Japanese in the 1940s thought pretty much the same thing about us, because our behavior had certain parallels," to the more recent period, Woolsey said.

"I think you have to admit that [al Qaeda] had some basis for the assessment that I've just described, just as the Japanese had some basis for the assessment that they made of us in the beginning of the 1940s."

Woolsey said he believes the conflict with Islamism and Baathism is neither a recent nor a short-term phenomenon. "What's new is not the war. What's new is not our being attacked. What's new is we noticed. We finally decided after 9-11 that we would be at war too." He added that the U.S. must "stay awake" in order to prevent future attacks.

--CNSNews