Posted on 07/18/2006 8:59:54 PM PDT by joanie-f
There are those on the left who have criticized President Bush for, among other things, what they characterize as an overly aggressive anti-terror policy that has helped recruit more terrorists. The renewed attacks by Hamas and Hezbollah over the past several weeks, following enormous concessions and withdrawal by Israel, and the behind-the-scenes maneuvering of Iran and Syria, make it plain that our response to fundamentalist Islamic terror, far from being too aggressive, has been much too restrained. I do not defend the decision to elevate Iraq above other threats in 2003, nor have I ever agreed with Secretary Rumsfeld's decision to override those generals who told him to invade Iraq with 350,000 troops, instead of 150,000. But from where we stand today, the only path to a stable, peaceful world is the application of overwhelming force to the entire sweep of the Jihad.
The Western liberal democracies' half-century embrace of multiculturalism, sensitivity, and moral relativism has blinded us all to the parallel between where we stand now and where we stood in 1935. Now as then, the enemy is obvious, his unimaginably horrific plans are articulated so all can understand them, but our natural aversion to the horrors of war holds us back. But the painful, awful choice is the same. We can rely, as Neville Chamberlain strove so mightily to do, on diplomacy to gain us an illusory "peace in our time"; or we can use every bit of our military might to crush the enemy, accepting, as we ultimately did from Dresden to Frankfurt to Tokyo to Hiroshima to Nagasaki, the horrible necessity of wholesale incineration of vast numbers of innocent, noncombatant, "enemy" civilians.
I would submit that those civilians' doom has already been sealed by the unspeakably vicious monsters living among them. The only remaining question is whether we prolong that doom sufficiently that huge numbers of us have to die with them, or nip this fulminating horror in the bud by crushing it without mercy -- or, if nothing else will work, vaporizing it.
In the aftermath of 9/11, the President's and Congress' admirable resolve in the face of inhuman savagery was inspirational. Five years later, that resolve is sorely missed. Muslim lunatics from Peshawar to Teheran to Damascus have come to believe, again, that they can attack the civilized world with impunity, because we lack the will to do what is needed to stop them. The Democrats' defeatism, weakness, and refusal to acknowledge the magnitude and seriousness of the threat have infected the mainstream press, Congressional Republicans, the Supreme Court, and the Bush White House. For the past three years, our irresolute behavior has reinforced the maniacs' belief in our essential weakness. Only little Israel demonstrates the guts to do what must be done, perhaps because they, alone, have no choice.
The bitter truth is that we are dealing with people who will never voluntarily stop murdering infidels. The core belief on which their entire lives are based is that God wants them to convert the world to Islam, and kill those who resist. Negotiating with them will never produce a compromise under which we and they can live with in peace. Any promise they make to abide by international agreements, or respect the rights, institutions, and lives of non-Muslims will be a lie, designed only to buy them more time to make more murderous plans and acquire better weapons to use against us. The civilians among whom they hide support them, nurture them, and make it impossible to target them without "collateral damage." But we must target them, regardless. Our lives and our civilization depend on it.
The mad mullahs, and Baathists, and Islamofascists must be made to understand that they must stop ALL terrorist acts against ALL other nations, and anything that even smells like development of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons RIGHT NOW, or they and their populations will face annihilation. No more talk, no more lies, no more dissembling, no more diplomacy. They stop, and they stay stopped, or they die, and their countries die with them. In Iran, in Syria, in Somalia, in Waziristan, leaders and civilians who support terrorists have forfeited their right to breathe the air of this planet. We don't have to occupy them, we don't have to rebuild them, we don't have to "bring them to justice," or grant them habeas corpus or let them have lawyers. We just have to destroy them.
I daresay nearly everyone has some threshold beyond which he would agree that it is time to unleash hell on the jihadis, with deep sorrow, but no change of course, for the innocents who are consumed in the fire. The differences among us are only in where that threshold lies. The destruction of Haifa? The obliteration of Israel? How about London? Another 9/11-type attack in this country? A coordinated biological attack at O'Hare, JFK, Dulles and LAX? Dirty bombs in downtown Chicago, NYC, and Washington? A 10 kiloton bomb in a delivery van a couple of blocks from the White House? Or Times Square? Or Disney World? Or all of the above?
If we are to survive as a nation, Congress must authorize and encourage President Bush to solve this problem, once and for all, by any means necessary, before the threat grows even worse. We cannot hide behind Israel any longer. We cannot afford to have the Democratic Party putting its energies into undermining Bush rather than joining with Republicans to ensure our survival. There is no doubt we will have to fight this war. No other course of action will allow us to return to a world of peace. The war has started, at a relatively low intensity, but it is escalating. Millions of Muslims are going to die. The only remaining question is whether millions of us are, too. My guess is that we will lose at least one major US city, and maybe a couple of major European cities, before we respond in force. Since we will continue to dither until then, the cataclysm will begin at a time of al Qaeda's choosing. That is a terrible shame, because far fewer of us, and probably fewer of them, would die if we took preemptive action now, rather than waiting for the first American city to go up in flames. But it will begin, either way. As Churchill said, we must fight this enemy on the land, on the sea, and in the air, and not rest until we have rid the earth of his shadow.
I've tried long and hard to come to a different conclusion, as I'm sure most of Europe, and certainly nearly all Americans, spent the 1930s trying to convince themselves that the nightmare they saw growing in the distance wasn't -- COULDN'T POSSIBLY BE -- real. But wishing couldn't stop it then, and I cannot escape the conclusion that it can't now, either. To paraphrase Margaret Thatcher's advice to President Bush 41, this is no time to go all wobbly. It is long past time to put a stop to this insane savagery.
Just a portion ...
In Iran, in Syria, in Somalia, in Waziristan, leaders and civilians who support terrorists have forfeited their right to breathe the air of this planet. We don't have to occupy them, we don't have to rebuild them, we don't have to "bring them to justice," or grant them habeas corpus or let them have lawyers. We just have to destroy them.
The following personal essay is as powerful and eloquent as anything I have read regarding the future of America … and the world.
Just a portion ...
In Iran, in Syria, in Somalia, in Waziristan, leaders and civilians who support terrorists have forfeited their right to breathe the air of this planet. We don't have to occupy them, we don't have to rebuild them, we don't have to "bring them to justice," or grant them habeas corpus or let them have lawyers. We just have to destroy them.
BumP
GW said it, "Bring 'em on."
I say, right on. Better there than here. And were not doing so bad rooting 'em out here.
yitbos
Then there is the obvious stupidity of the usual "All Muslims are terrorists" rant of the typical Know Nothing. MOST of the people fighting and dying ON OUR SIDE in the War are Muslim Iraqis, Afghanis and Pakistanis. This idiot would make enemies of all of them. Stupid and completely unworkable as a viable US strategy. We have neither the political will, the desire nor the treasure to wage a war of conquest in the Middle East.
HERE is what Iraq is about. Any "General" who doesn't understand this level of basic strategy should of been fired.
Counter Insurgency is a strange bastard style of war. It is not total war but it is also more then the Leftist" Police matter". The other thing most old Cast Iron Conservatives forget is the political aspect. Iraq was doable. We had the political consensus to do it. So since we needed a kill zone we could suck the terrorists into and we needed to get the American people to support the cost, there was no other choice BUT Iraq.
Want to really blow the Leftists minds? Tell them this. Even if Al Gore won in 2000 and 9-11 happened the USA would STILL be doing the same thing now in Iraq. Iraq was doable militarily and politically. There was no other place for the US to go. Iraq is basically the same deal as the invasions of Italy was in 1943 Here in a nutshell, is the military reason for Iraq.
The War on Terrorism is different sort of war. In the war on Terrorism, we have a hidden foe, spread out across a geographically diverse area, with covert sources of supply. Since we cannot go everywhere they hide out, in fact often cannot even locate them until the engage us, we need to draw them out of hiding into a kill zone. Iraq is that kill zone. That is the true brilliance of the Iraq strategy. We draw the terrorists out of their world wide hiding places onto a battlefield they have to fight on for political reasons (The "Holy" soil of the Arabian peninsula) where they have to pit their weakest ability (Conventional Military combat power) against our greatest strength (ability to call down unbelievable amounts of firepower) where they will primarily have to fight other forces (the Iraqi Security forces) in a battlefield that is hostile to guerrilla warfare. (Iraqi-mostly open terrain as opposed to guerrilla friendly areas like the mountains of Afghanistan or the jungles of SE Asia).
There are other reasons to do Iraq but that is the MILITARY reason we are in Iraq. We have taken, an maintain the initiative from the Terrorists. They are playing OUR game on ground of OUR choosing. For the Terrorists Iraq is "Death Ground" a battlefeild they MUST fight on for political reasons.
Problem is Counter Insurgency is SLOW and painful. Often a case of 3 steps forward, two steps back. I often worry that the American people have neither the maturity, nor the intellect" to understand. It's so much easier to spew made for TV slogans like "No Blood for Oil" or "We support the Troops, bring them home" then to actually THINK. Problem is these people have NO desire to co-exist with us. They see all this PC posturing by the Hysteric Left as a sign that we are weak. Since they want us dead, weakness encourages them. They think their "god" will bless them for killing Westerners. So we can covert to Islam, die or kill them. Iraq is about killing enough of them to make the rest realize we are serious.
See in the Arab world the USA is considered a big wimp. We have run away so many times. Lebanon, the Kurds, the Iraqis in 1991, the Iranians, Somalia, Clinton all thru the 1990s etc etc etc. The Jihadists think we will run again. In fact they are counting on it. That way they can run around screaming "We beat the American just like the Russians, come join us in Jihad" and recruit the next round of "holy warriors". Iraq is also a show place where we show the Muslim world that there are a lines they cannot cross. On 9-11 they crossed that line and we can, and will, destroy them for it.
> We cannot hide behind Israel any longer.
That presumes we are.
The bunker busters falling on Lebanon after dark are
from flying machines with stars painted on them, but
it wouldn't surprise me if some have only 5 points.
What would you propose?
The former Freeper was correct, as is the writer of this article. There is no room for diplomacy, wheedling nor expectation of civilized behavior from an entity that forgoes with any pretense of logic in it's single-tracked dedication toward eradicating all who don't share their fanaticism.
While our President is making noises that sound like he's not happy with recent events he does this with a seemingly joking demeanor much as he does when discussing global warming or embryonic research - subjects that he deals with but has little emotional connection to.
I have to ask if the insurgents that have been leaking through our insufficiently-protected Southern border since 9-11 and hidden in the mosque circuit are preparing to strike us from within while events overseas unfold to establish the Islamic Grand Caliphate they're striving for.
Yeah, Johnnie; what do you think we should do? Or does anything beyond defending the actions/inactions of this administration prove too taxing? Before you piped up we were discussing what to do about the greatest threat on our planet. Seems to me that meeting an evil force with an answering superior force that would wipe them out like the Nazis was the general concensus.
Regarding the 350,000 man force. The fact is that it would have been impossible to field such an army. Where would we have launched them from?
Kuwait would not do. The Turks would not help us. Those opposed to the war did whatever they could to make the operation impossible. When Franks did it so easily with the force at his disposal, they were nonplussed.
One of the most important questions facing our leadership -- and one that they repeatedly insist on ignoring, at our peril.
~ joanie
Allegiance and Duty Betrayed
Link Please?
I, nor Travis, Wardaddy, Stainless or a multitude of others are ignoring it.
Would you define supplying smart weapons to Israel as sufficient evidence of America's commitment to defending Israel's right to exist?
Should the Arab world come together, emboldened, in defense of what is incorrectly seen as an offensive attack on Lebanon (or eventually on Iran and/or Syria) , and should conditions for Israel begin to deteriorate before they have safely defended their homeland and their soldiers in the field, it will be up to America to come to her aid. We cannot remain a spectator. The defense of Israel is a hill we must commit to defending, no matter the political, material or human cost.
We are all in a holy war, whether we choose to acknowledge that fact or not. Christians and Jews, in particular, had better soon come to grips with the realization that there is an historically unprecedented malevolent movement afoot, with tens of millions of adherents (and growing), whose only aim is to eradicate any vestige of our faith, and to replace it with a ‘religion’ which demands loyalty to its god alone, and which vows violent death to those who refuse allegiance.
Hezbollah’s recent vicious attacks on Israel simply represent the most recent emboldened attempts to expand the Muslim sphere of influence, and to ensure the success of an eventual second Holocaust.
~ joanie
See post #2. This is a private essay, written by a friend. It has not been published anywhere but here. What's your point?
Agreed.
Fighting terrorists is a lot like trying to kill a retro-virus. Its difficult to kill the virus without eventually destroying the host cell in some manner or other.
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