Victor Davis Hanson: If the Problem Is Muslim Terror, Then What? ...keep our enemies out

victorhanson.com / City Journal ^ | Autumn 2005 | Victor Davis Hanson

[Tolik]

We need to get serious about keeping our enemies out.

<...snip...>

...If we really are in a war against Muslim terror, our enemies and those who support or appease them pose a quandary on the home front unlike anything we have faced in past struggles.

First, unlike in previous wars, securing the homeland is absolutely central to the outcome of this conflict. In the war’s overseas fronts in Afghanistan and Iraq, no enemy possesses the conventional or other means to defeat the U.S. militarily. The only way America could lose abroad would be if it loses the will to fight—and that could only happen through a succession of terrorist attacks at home that petrified the citizenry, warped our political institutions, or disrupted the economy to such an extent that, Madrid-style, we granted concessions to radical Islamists. Terrorism is not the last desperate resort of this enemy; it is its first, deliberate attack. ...Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, or Syria ...[can]...  deny culpability and deplore terrorism publicly, making it almost impossible for us to justify a conventional military response against them.

Second, technology has made it easier for small numbers of individuals—even a single person—to inflict substantial damage on America’s social and economic fabric...

Third, in an age of instantaneous communications and global travel, two oceans provide America with precious little security against such weapons. Back in June 1942, submarines had to drop eight German saboteurs, outfitted with clumsy radio communications equipment, off the Florida and Long Island coasts. Today, hundreds of jihadists from a Pakistan or a Yemen could fly to Lodi or Portland in less than 24 hours and communicate in real time with whomever they wish worldwide...

<...snip...>

[Tolik]

    Victor Davis Hanson Ping ! 

       Let me know if you want in or out.

Links: FR Index of his articles:  http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=victordavishanson 
His website: http://victorhanson.com/     NRO archive: http://www.nationalreview.com/hanson/hanson-archive.asp

[A Balrog of Morgoth]

We need to get serious about keeping our enemies out.

Unfortunately, the DNC is already here. :)

[purpleland]

"We need to get serious about keeping our enemies out."

Well, except for our deeply entrenched and established enemies here at home, e.g., CAIR, the MEDIA, the ACLU, et al, we need to keep out more enemies. The way things are in America now, there four directions to which we dare not turn our backs.

[goodnesswins]

Actually, I think we need to get serious about finding and KILLING OUR ENEMIES

[rightinthemiddle]

Wow, I didn't know only Muslims are terrorists. Learn something new everyday.

Well, come to FR...

[dogger]

I suspect that you won't be with us very long.

[rightinthemiddle]

I'm sure he has lots of free time to keep re-registering.

[Grampa Dave]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1517372/posts?page=6#6

A new troll toy to play with.

I will be leaving soon for an appointment. Have fun!

[GBA]

Are there other groups committing acts of terror? And if you say the US military, you are an idiot.

[eureka!]

Only 98%...

[kingattax]

On Oct. 17 at the 5th annual 'Iftaar' dinner at the White House, Pres Bush announced that "for the first time in our nation's history we have added a Koran to the White House Library." Isn't that nice ?

This 'diversity makes America stronger' crap is a tool of those who want to see America destroyed. make no mistake about that.

[DeusExMachina05]

ping

[FreedomPoster]

Technically, that's a bump, not a ping.

Bump.

[torchthemummy]

You will be gone real soon.

PS: Majority of terrorism today is committed by islamic extremist and leftist/communist governments.

You are everything you say you are against. In the end you will lose.

[heartwood]

it's good "know your enemy" reading.

[LucyT]

Sounds like freeper "bybybill" who answered me yesterday. Here's his post:

"Must be a very scary place, the world you live in. Not all Muslims are bad. There were a whole bunch of Christians that fought for Germany during WW2. Does that make all Christians enemies of the US?"

39 posted on 11/06/2005 11:29:26 PM MST by bybybill (remember, the fish come first)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1517089/posts?page=39#39

[afnamvet]

BTTT!

[jordan8]

Better than the usual drivel from VDH. Bombs in the London subway, burning cars in Paris, jihad camps in California, these are just the little blue pimples than signify the AIDS of white-hating, West hating, self-loathing racism underneath. Hanson can't quite bring himself to condemn the genocide underneath, but one can't expect to have everything, I suppose.

Heightening our vulnerability further, contemporary Americans do not appear as a distinct class, ethnic group, or race. A Middle Easterner casing a subway might stand out in racially homogeneous Sweden or Nigeria; he wouldn’t be so easy to pick out in the multiracial U.S.

Yep, and not much you can do about it now. It is remarkable to remember the time when GERMAN operatives during WW2 had a tough time operating in the U.S. or Britain. A slight accent, odd or stilted grammar, outdated slang and clothes marked them for suspicion (one German agent in Britain was singled out because he was wearing Plus Fours).

Extend existing statutes on inflammatory speech and hate crimes to include radical Islamic doctrines that routinely denigrate Americans, Jews, homosexuals, and women. Hand down long sentences to those convicted of promulgating Islamic hatred and plotting terrorism, with special attention given to Saudi-sponsored charities, madrassas, and mosques.

There are no statutes on inflammatory speech, you dope, and shouldn't be (see Constitution of the United States, Amendment One). A good example of the creeping elimination of our freedoms so that we can "all just get along."