"Over time it's going to be important for nations to know they will be held accountable for inactivity. You're either with us or against us in the fight against terror."
President Bush has been bold, consistent, and resolute, in his application of force during this "War on Terror". He has not been particularly forthcoming regarding who this "Terror" is that we are at war with. He has been loath to say "Islam", so the term "Jahidists" was coined somewhere up in "spin central" at the White House. I believe he has avoided identifying our "enemies" most Muslims, and Muslim nation-states in the world, both as strategic moves and compassionate action.
Strategically, while al'Qaeda sympathies and anti-American fervor is shared by a significant minority, and perhaps majority of Muslims in the world, it does U.S. interests no good to alienate the rest of the Muslims in the world. There are many who do not share the Wahabi world view of Islamic domination by force, who might desire a more free, democratic vision of an Islamic republic, and they can be useful in this war.
However, in the end, what matters is who wins or loses, or how many casualties the U.S. and our coalition partners take at home and in the field. If President Bush or Powell's State Department cannot subordinate the interests of Muslims to our own civilians and military personnel, we will not win the war.
Faluja, for example, must be completely flattened, if it is not too late. Women and children can leave the city, and enter camps until they can be documented. Men can leave if they surrender all arms; they too will enter separate camps, to be further segregated, identified, and documented. Those who choose not to leave the city will be buried there, with as little loss of life to our Marines as possible.
When the al'Qaeda terrorists have been killed or imprisoned, we can use Iraqi oil money to build a new Faluja, if we so choose.
THAT is a "serious" response to the war being waged upon us via proxies such as Afghanistan, Iraq, and perhaps Syria and Iran. Arabs respect strength, and in the case of the U.S.A., that is the only thing they respect or fear about America. But they also feel their god, Allah, the god of the murderers of innocents, is greater than the U.S.A., that we will collapse due to our own corruption. And, they are more than willing to give us a push, by killing as many American's as possible.
The Bush Administration needs to stand back, and assess exactly WHAT the U.S. priorities are in this war. Nation building and Democracy? Sure, that's fine, but not at "any cost" in American lives and treasure.
American interest must always come first, or the U.S. government will forfeit legitimacy in the eyes of Americans, and more importantly our many enemies in this World. If the U.S. government is ambivalent about the murder of Americans, e.g. it's just a "cost of doing business", the cost of war, then why should terrorists feel differently. The maniac leading those five murders might indeed be ignorant, but American must act in a way that has saner Muslims quaking in their sandals. When the U.S. states that "retribution will be swift and certain", it had better execute --- immediately. What's the life of one American worth? A mosque? A city? A city of terrorists?
Bush and his team had better figure out the math, and convincingly sell that "cost" to our enemies. The terrorists do have "interests" we can damage. Mecca and Medina? A few precision weapons could reduce those sites to ashes. Saudi oil fields? The same fate, on the same day as the U.S. opens the Alaskan oil reserves to aggressive and rapid development. Are Syria and Iran supporting insurgents with weapons or fighters (neither "grow on trees")? There are appropriate targets of interest to which we can apply "force".
American is at war. We are under sustained attack. We must respond in meaningful ways; we must carry the war to the enemies. Or we will lose.
SFS
Faluja, for example, must be completely flattened, if it is not too late.
Exactly. If Muslims use holy cities as defensive positions, they can't be that holy.
I had admired Bush for pressing on with his beliefs in spite of adversity and the leftist media. However, recently, I think he's been slipping. Is the 2004 election too close? I really hope Bush will take a fierce response or my confidence in him will slip.
If we are not prepared to do what it takes to win the war, we should never have gotten involved. If our floundering continues, Iraq WILL be a quagmire and WILL turn into a Vietnam.