The Global War on Terror Must Continue
Saul Singer writing for the Jerusalem Post has an excellent post regarding the democracies and in particular America’s war on terror. He describes this cycle democracies go through in confronting any evil or dictator bent on world domination. It is a cycle which has gone through many, many loops over the years.
· democracies show weakness;
· dictators are emboldened and attack;
· democracies respond slowly, insufficiently, or appease;
· dictators are further emboldened and attack harder;
· war;
· democracies win;
· start over again…
This trend can be seen in almost every war in which the west has confronted evil: World War I, World War II, the Cold War, and lately the Global War on Terror. Somehow the west has managed to come together at the last minute to defeat these threats. One of the problems with fighting this new war is that the United States is not the same country which fought and won both world wars. We have become divided with the Republicans on one side who are intent on fighting evil and the Democrats on the other who are intent on ‘understanding’ evil. The Dems were content to ‘understand’ and gave in to communism at every chance from the ‘80s onward. They felt that if we took the time to reflect on how we were scaring the communists into building stronger and stronger militaries, then both sides would draw down, take their collective fingers off the nuclear triggers and the world would be a safer place. The Cold War came to an abrupt end because Ronald Reagan went on a military spending spree which the Soviets could not afford. The Soviet Union ended without a shot being fired between the major powers. If the Democrats had their way, America would have embarked on reckless disarmament agreements without reciprocation. This would have made the Cold War last much, much longer. Republicans confronted evil, the Democrats did not.
The GWOT is no different. After the 9/11 attacks, the US came together in mutual anger towards those who killed so many of our own people. Of course the cohesiveness was short lived. Republicans looked outward while the Democrats engaged in collective navel gazing. George Bush saw the world for what it was, teetering on the edge of an abyss. For far too long this country had ignored radical Islam and now we were paying for that oversight with American lives. President Bush not only went after the terrorists in Afghanistan, but he found other enemies of America who were helping terrorists. The Democrats on the other hand, were asking themselves what we as a nation had done to engender this hatred towards us. This self absorption would cost even more American lives.
What President Bush needs to do is to continue fighting against terrorism. There are those in this country, Democrats, who do not want us to fight, who want us to withdraw inward, to make ourselves safe by not doing things which make others not like us. The problem is there will always be those who do not like us because we are a rich country. President Bush is fighting and pursuing terrorists even though other countries are trying to hender our advancement.
As the security situation deteriorated, Iraqis made impressive strides toward democracy, for which Americans also deserve credit. If Iran and its vassal, Syria, have failed to derail Iraq’s political progress, they have succeeded in something no less important: derailing America’s prosecution of the global war.
Since 9/11, America had always had an offensive objective. First it was Afghanistan, then it was Iraq. When Saddam was captured, Libya also fell into line, which was a nice bonus for toppling the regime in Iraq. But despite what Bush said on the USS Abraham Lincoln on May 1, 2003 - “Any outlaw regime that has ties to terrorist groups and seeks or possesses weapons of mass destruction is a grave danger to the civilized world - and will be confronted” - Iraq became the end, not a step, in a war that had not yet been won.
The US and the entire western world is at war with terrorism. We were not the only ones attacked by terrorists. These Islamic radicals are out to destroy the entire western world and place it under an Islamic regime. The war against global terror is just beginning, not ending. There are still those like Iran and Syria who are intent on spreading their hate around the world.
The choice is between Bush returning to lead America and the world now, or waiting for a drumbeat of terror, or a mega-9/11, to restart the American-led campaign to confront jihadist regimes. We cannot avoid the war phase of the grand historic pattern, because the war has already begun, but we can win it before it becomes much more costly.
They must be stopped if the world is going to be a safer place. At this point we can either continue the assault on terror and the nations who support terror or we can return to our self-absorption. Navel gazing at this point only makes our necks more exposed to terrorists.
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