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.

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...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...

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[OKIEDOC]

Excellent observation.

The kook fringe which is the main stream of the Democrat party has cowed many sane party faithful.

I seriously believe that the Democrat party is dangerous to America as it is currently configured.

The Democrat leadership is worse than being just culpable to our enemies they are traitors to their own country.

I have no respect for Reid, Boxer, Pelosie, Turdbin, Kennedy, Dean, Congressional Black Congress, Rangel, Conyers, or John Kerry.