Posted on 04/25/2007 11:00:38 PM PDT by neverdem
Do we still need to fight a war on terror?
The answer seems to be no for an increasing number in the West who are weary over Afghanistan and Iraq or complacent from the absence of a major attack on the scale of 9/11.
The British Foreign Office has scrapped the phrase "war on terror" as inexact, inflammatory and counterproductive. U.S. Central Command has just dropped the term "long war" to describe the fight against radical Islam.
An influential book making the rounds - "Overblown: How Politicians and the Terrorism Industry Inflate National Security Threats, and Why We Believe Them" - argues that the threat from al-Qaida is vastly exaggerated.
Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter's national security adviser, goes further, assuring us that we are terrorized mostly by the false idea of a war on terror - not the jihadists themselves.
Even onetime neo-conservative Francis Fukuyama, who in 1998 called for the preemptive removal of Saddam Hussein, believes "war" is the "wrong metaphor" for our struggle against the terrorists.
Others point out that motley Islamic terrorists lack the resources of the Nazi Wehrmacht or the Soviet Union.
This thinking may seem understandable given the ineffectiveness of al-Qaida to kill many Americans after 9/11. Or it may also reflect hopes that if we only leave Iraq, radical Islam will wither away. But it is dead wrong for a number of reasons.
First, Islamic terrorists plotting attacks are arrested periodically in both Europe and the United States. Just last week a leaked British report detailed al-Qaida's plans for future "large-scale" operations. We shouldn't be blamed for being alarmist when our alarmism has resulted in our safety at home for the past five years...
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearpolitics.com ...
Is the War on Terror Over?
No.
Do we still need to fight a war on terror?
Yes
Next question.
Wars don’t end til both sides agree its over.
The jihadists will never agree.
Slogans sometimes are too short to be true, but I like this one: “There is no substitute for victory”.
Cold as it may sound, the only person I’ve heard who has “nailed it” is Ann Coulter.
“Invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.”
Until then, sooner or later, we are going to have to give the Muslims the jihad they so desperately want. And this time, we’ll finish the job.
Finally, for the record, with our open borders & ports, it has been nothing short of miraculous that we haven’t had another terrorist attack since 9/11.
The way I look at this war is, it’s the Cold War, and it’s 1952.
This is a guerrilla war on a world wide scale, and guerrilla wars, and counter-insurgency’s are the hardest kind of wars to fight, especially for Americans as we are impatient.
And when it does the laimstream media will have blood all over their hands....
The War on Terror may well be coming to an end as Bush races to make a Democracy out of Iraq and the Congress races to pull out, but the Islamic War is only just getting cranked up. If we choose not to participate we will soon enough find that there is no such choice. We can participate passively or we can defend ourselves.
Is there anything or one, that has the tendency to make you feel like not patronizing that place, or crossing the street to avoid him/her/them/it ?
If you're capable of being objective, do you recognize a pro ( fill in with whatever )stance in your speech and mannerisms that are really cover-ups for what you truly don't know?
Does it bother you that you just can't seem to find an English speaking person in the taxi .. the 7/11 .. your gynocologist's office .. some members in congress?
The war on terror is really a war with terror ... we battle our own darknesses because we no longer have the light of truth to brighten our path and support the confident stride we used to have.
Many years ago I read a paperback titled, "The Ugly American". It came to my attention sometime in the late 60's or early 70's. As I recall, it was a bashing of we Americans as seen by others as we vacation in their countries. Seemed like a plausable plot in my youthful thought processes.
Now, a few years older and hopefully a lot wiser ... we Americans have lost our ability to be that particular brand of ugly. That distinction seems to have been awarded ... yea, confiscated by, the radical Islamist.
Consider ... we know, because of reports or, for those with the strength, the video's, that men, and now a report of a boy, have decapitated a (many) man while alive and blindfolded. They do this in their country and the report is received here and we become afraid about people here because of someone there.
(I really tried to make that understandable)
Anyway, the war on terror is a battle that we have withing ourselves, of our trembling at everything that intrudes and upsets our comfort zone.
I think what we should do is start re-developing that arrogant attitude that labeled us before as ugly and forget about all the PC crap that continues to castrate the men and sterilize the women.
I challenge some congress critters to stop beginning every vocal outburst with .. "My esteemed colleague on the other side .. " but by using common knowledge, logic and a pair of brass balls ..
"Would the senator from Massachustts, or Nevada, or Michigan (fill in your own blank) shut the phugue up, sit down and stop trying to destroy this nation, or I'm up that aisle in a New York minute to close your lieing, treasonous mouth."
Agree, but (and isn’t there always a but) the problem is what does victory look like? In this war there’ll be no surrender papers signed, or anything like that. A good analogy would be how the government fought the KKK, yes they’re still around but they have been marginalized, and that’s what will become of the various Islamic terrorist groups and their ideology.
This stage of it was over in November. The public voted to quit.
We, as a nation, had better plan accordingly.
“Invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.”
One of (if not The) dumbest things she ever said.
Until then, sooner or later, we are going to have to give the Muslims the jihad they so desperately want. And this time, we’ll finish the job.
The thing is (it appears) that you (and others here) think that the Salafist/Wahhabists speak for all Muslims. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The radical loser (Long Read)
Der Spiegel ^ | 1/12/05 | Hans Magnus Enzensberger
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1694568/posts
snip)
Contrary to what the West appears to believe, the destructive energy of Islamist actions is directed mainly against Muslims. This is not a tactical error, not a case of “collateral damage”. In Algeria alone, Islamist terror has cost the lives of at least 50,000 fellow Algerians. Other sources speak of as many as 150,000 murders, although the military and the secret services were also involved. In Iraq and Afghanistan, too, the number of Muslim victims far outstrips the death toll among foreigners. Furthermore, terrorism has been highly detrimental not only to the image of Islam but also to the living conditions of Muslims around the world.
The Islamists are as unconcerned about this as the Nazis were about the downfall of Germany. As the avant-garde of death, they have no regard for the lives of their fellow believers. In the eyes of the Islamists, the fact that most Muslims have no desire to blow themselves and others sky high only goes to show that they deserve no better than to be liquidated themselves. After all, the aim of the radical loser is to make as many other people into losers as possible. As the Islamists see it, the fact that they are in the minority can only be because they are the chosen few.
(snip)
Don't have to read any further. If he says no then it must be yes!
yeaaaaaa...well I’ll remember what you said the next time there is another terrorist bombing...
the only thing “dumb” was that Bush didn’t deport every Muslim swinging dick after 9/11.
I don’t see any of these so called “moderate” muslims lining up at the Marine Corps recruiters’ office!
So you can save me & your time by not posting any more muslim excuses...
If these so called muslim “moderates” want to gain some credibility all they need to do is start “taking out their own trash.”
Class dismissed!
well I’ll remember what you said the next time there is another terrorist bombing...
And what does that have to do with what I said?
the only thing “dumb” was that Bush didn’t deport every Muslim swinging dick after 9/11.
And that was exactly what OBL expected us to do. When we didn’t..he lost.
Is the war on terror over? No. Is the strategy that says, “Hey, they’re just like us. Let’s follow a foreign policy that is tantamount to sending missionaries for secular capitalism into their society to remake their nations,” is.
Hanson’s own favorite example (to follow up on what you said) is dissipating of numerous pro-fascist organizations in many countries after the WWII - somehow fascism stopped being popular in a very short time.
Its much more nuanced with communism after the fall of the USSR; outright communist parties maybe less popular, but socialist parties are quite strong. Plus Marxism mutated into multiculturalism, and folks-Marxism of that aggrieved and weak are always right.
For Islamic Jihad War, our victory would be denunciation of terrorist tactics and sudden insistence that Jihad is strictly internal struggle with fatwas stating just that. Why - because of the realization by different Muslim powers that we are a strong horse with a staying power (I’d prefer a “crazy strong horse”, but its me) and we are not buying into any of their aggrieved claims anymore. In other words - they modernize and start catching up with other world. Turkey and Malaysia for example do show that the state can be more powerful than Islam (not an easy task of course, but doable).
hey, genius, if Clinton had deported ALL the muslims after the first WTC bombing in 1993 there wouldn’t have been a second in 2001!
the only way we’re gonna “WIN” this war is by handing the muslims their asses. PERIOD!
gezzzzzzzzzzz...the IQ level drops by the minute around here.
now quit bothering me with your “OBL” & muslim apologist BS.
From the story line, if no attacks means the threat is over, doesn't that put us in the same formulaic boat as the lead actress in any horror film? You know, when the banging on the door stops, the shaking of the house ceases, or the thumping in the oven ends (for you Karen Black fans) ... then with the audience screaming "don't do it!!!" she opens the door ...
I love a good analogy. Yours is great!
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