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Slowly, the war is coming into focus.

It is NOT a war against Islam, as some have called for.

It is a war against a particular brand of Arab Fascism that shamelessly perverts Islam.

Islamism, with its heart in Wahabbi Saudi Arabia.

It is NOT a war against Islam, as some have called for. It is a war against a particular brand of Arab Fascism that shamelessly perverts Islam.

No matter how we define that "particular brand" of Islam, our targets will immediately proclaim it as all of Islam. And quite frankly, there may be little difference between the two definitions. Especially when you look at the fundamentalist Shiites in Iran, fundamentalist Wahabbis in Saudi Arabia, fundamentalist Suuni sects in Palestine, Sudan, etc. There internal differences are many, but they have a common thread, namely, hatred of the West. Look at the State Dept's list of terror groups. Most of them are Islamic.

I think that knocking off the "islamo-fascists" is going to be tougher than expected. It's not as though we can ask them to gather in one spot for us.

In fact, they seem to have a couple things going for them: Breeding grounds and decentralization. (Sounds like an insect hive. Hmmm.)

By breeding grounds I mean population demographics combined with Islamic schools that preach hatred of the west/jews/etc. In the US, it may be tough to stop that. In fact, anywhere in the world, it requires trying to stop "teachers" from "teaching" that which we find objectionable -- hate speech, I suppose.

And the decentralization issue has many facets. The terror groups are in many countries. Finding and stopping these guy's in every country they infest (another insect metaphor) is going to be a long and diplomatically difficult job.

Also, there are very few central authority figures. With Hirohito's Japan, Hitler's Germany, Kaiser Bill, Robert E Lee's confederacy, once the big guy said "uncle" everyone on his side stopped. Where is the central authority figure in the war on terror? You have literally thousands of imans, and clerics, and ayatollahs running around yelling "jihad" and handing out passes to paradise. The implication is that ending terror means taking out all these "religious leaders." And that means fighting a "holy war" by their definition. I have to imagine that most of the Press in the West will use this term too. About the best we can hope for from the press is if they put the term "holy war" in quotes. Sheesh.

Random rumblings....

It is a war against a particular brand of Arab Fascism that shamelessly perverts Islam.

That's my position. Unfortunately much of Islam has bought into the Pan Arab Islamic agenda. A good portion of Turkey has not and remains the only possibility for leadership away from the fascistic and dangerous admixture of Pan Arabism and Islam.