Waiting To Be Terrorists (Just how misunderstood is TROP™?)

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette ^ | January 21, 2007 | Bradley R. Gitz

[quidnunc]

The reaction to last week’s U.S. air strikes in Somalia against what the media calls Islamic militants and most other people call terrorists nicely illustrates differing attitudes toward terrorism as a phenomenon.

From the Bush administration’s perspective, there wasn’t much to contemplate: Among Islamist forces cornered by an Ethiopian-Somali offensive were the terrorists suspected in the 1998 attacks upon our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Trying to blow them into tiny pieces before they slipped the noose was the obvious move.

People who believe they are at war act that way. They assume that they have enemies and that victory requires, among other things, killing those enemies before they kill us. Then again, people who don’t see themselves as at war aren’t in favor of killing anyone, even terrorists, and refrain from even using words like “enemy.” This is where the critics, including many of our alleged allies, come in.

Within hours of our air strikes, European diplomats were wringing their hands and issuing the usual expressions of concern. The Italian foreign minister decried “unilateral initiatives that could spark new tensions,” while a spokesman for Norway’s government sniffed that Washington’s explanations were “insufficient” and that terrorism should only “be fought in a courtroom and not with military hardware.”

One senses that behind such sentiments lurk two somewhat contradictory ideas — that using military force against Islamic terrorists only creates more Islamic terrorists and that Islam must certainly and always be a religion of peace.

-snip-

Put differently, Muslims cannot logically be both peaceful folk leading ordinary, humdrum lives one minute and suddenly so inflamed against the infidels as to join a terrorist organization dedicated to killing infidels the next. As such, perhaps the greatest insult being directed these days at Muslims is the insinuation that so many of them are so eager to become terrorists that only a bit of provocation from George W. Bush and Dick Cheney can make it happen.

-snip-

[PGalt]

If Islam is a religion of peace, as most of us believe and hope, then most Muslims will understand this and applaud our efforts. When it comes to terrorism, it really is a case of being either for it or against it, with no qualifications of any kind. And if seeking to kill the terrorists who seek to kill us turns so many Muslims toward terrorism, then we truly are, and should be, at war with Islam itself.

Good article by Bradley R. He Gitz it.

[Vigilanteman]

terrorism should only “be fought in a courtroom and not with military hardware.”

It sort of reminds me of one of those old World War II storied my Dad told me.

It seems the sailors in the Pacific, and for that matter, all the armed forces were wasting too much food. Someone came up with a clever poster announcing "Food Will Win the War." One of his shipmates scrawled on the poster these words:

But how are we going to get Hitler to come and eat here?

So until the Euroweenies figure out how to get the terrorists to report to their courtrooms, we're going to have to seek them out and kill them.

[PGalt]

...while a spokesman for Norway’s government sniffed that Washington’s explanations were “insufficient” and that terrorism should only “be fought in a courtroom and not with military hardware.”

jihad is being waged militarily, asymetrically, psychologically, politically, judicially, spiritually, economically, conversionally, demographically, collectively, individually and deceptively.