The War on Terror Won't End in Baghdad

Now that we are set to have our great debate on the war against terrorism, it seems it will be the wrong debate.

By all indications, the discussion will be about using our irresistible military might against a single country in order to bring down its leader. We should instead be talking about using all our political, moral and military genius to support a vast democratic revolution to liberate all the peoples of the Middle East from tyranny. That is our real mission, the essence of the war in which we are engaged, and the proper subject of our national debate.

Indeed, it is a very traditional sort of war, one at which the U.S. has always excelled: It is a war against tyrants and in the name of freedom. Our greatest weapon in this war is the people oppressed by tyrannical regimes. They constitute a lethal dagger aimed at the hearts of their rulers. And knowing this, the tyrants fear us.

Absolutley false and stunningly ignorant. Why does Mr. Leeden suppose that we support the Saudi ruling family? Why does he suppose that we abandoned the shiite uprising in Iraq at the end of the gulf war? Why does he suppose that we support corrupt and oppressive regimes all over the middle east? Is it because "the people" are clamoring for Democracy and freedom and liberty and are starving for western style government and culture? No- the exact and total opposite. We support the rulers we do and allowed Sadaam to remain in power because if they were to fall they would be replaced by radical Islamic totalitarian regimes.

Western thinking has barely penetrated the Islamic world. You can count the number of Arab or Muslem pro western intellectuals on one hand. The people in these countries don't look to western ideas and ways as there deliverance from oppression- just the opposite- they look to radical islamic groups. Osama is a folk hero to the common man on the street in these countries! Leeden is either dangerously ignorant or a knowing purveyour of untruth. There is no great groundswell of western support among these people- not in the slightest.

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