Posted on 07/15/2004 1:58:41 PM PDT by TheMole
| New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com |
| Forget fluff, focus on jihad
One can blame any government available for riling them up and inspiring others to join them, but the facts are what they are and will remain past November. They are at war with us, and we need to face the fact that changing an administration, if it comes to that, will not cause the Prophet to appear in the skies with a referee's whistle and blow it to signal that the extremists should stop the kidnapping, the decapitating, the car bombing and constant murdering. If anything, the war against them should become even stronger and more resolute. They mean neither us nor the world any good, and they represent a fact as strong as the one Adolf Hitler did during World War II. Even regimes opposed to each other, like those of the West and those of Russia, found themselves in the same war vessel because the Nazi wolf was rabid and could be handled with no less than fire and steel. Talk was beyond question unless it was about the surrender of the Third Reich. That is how it is and how it will be. Mad, brutal romantics though they might be, the soldiers of jihad are serious men. They were warming up during the 1980s and they have been pitching balls of fire since the early '90s. They do not care who sits in the Oval Office. It is important to remember these hard facts when so much is made of how good John & John look together or how well their wives get on or how easily the four of them fit in a van or what kinds of suits they wear. Such trivia is part of the problem at the center of our time, because important questions are shoved aside in favor of the hollow obsessions with surfaces. If a television station has the choice between getting an exclusive with John & John's barbers and a learned opinion on their policies, it seems we would find ourselves looking at a guy with clippers and scissors. These are not the times for trivial pursuits. What we need to know from Mr. Kerry and Mr. Edwards is what kind of a war strategy they have and what it would do to give us a better chance to defeat these enemies who do not go on vacations, follow elections or respond to polls. What, exactly, do these two men propose to keep our shores safe and to handle the troubles we are faced with in Iraq as well as with the growing body of jihadists? The rest is fluff. |
It's amazing how the media can distract from the real issues. Once in a while one of them gets it right; this is one.
Great column -- Crouch really sees what's important.
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