Today is the anniversary of the worst day of my life, maybe the worst day of yours, the day that my country was attacked and 3000 people died. I woke to the news after a flight to
It is now seven years later and our nation is still fighting the war that this event precipitated. We will be fighting it for many years to come. It is our generation’s Cold War, and like the Cold War, we will eventually win.
That day will come, probably after more horrific days of death. The Bush Administration does not get enough credit for all it has done to avert further attacks here, but pulling something off is just too easy for it not to happen someday. We all hope that our first responders have taken the lessons they needed from 9-11, and that we will manage the consequences of the next attack better than the last. I think they will.
We are at war with radical Islam, just as we were at war with Marxist totalitarianism. During a foreign policy seminar I took a couple of years ago, I was challenged by an Islamic professor from
Radical Islam is not just a few bad apples spoiling it for the rest of the bunch. Radical Islam exists because of the support, tacit and explicit, of a great many “moderate” Muslims who fund their activities and give a pass for their extremism with words like, “we don’t support what they have done, but we understand why they do it”. Radical Islam could not exist without this great heat sink of support, this financial and emotional support base from which its adherents largely emanate.
We are at war with radical Islam, and we are in conflict with Islam. Islam is anti-modern. Islam is inconsistent with Western civilization’s view of
We will win this war when we have killed and captured as many of the extremists as we can, and when we have won the conflict of ideas and values we have with the Islamic world.
Either Islam or Western Civilization will endure with its values intact. I prefer the latter.
That's a bit ethnocentric, don't you think? Scott Ritter, a real warrior, would beg to differ. As would the rest of the world.
ReplyDeleteWhether Scott Ritter differs (or anyone else for that matter) has no impact on what I believe to be true.
ReplyDeleteTo verynearfuture, as a member of the "rest of the world" (although i don't believe i carry a card proving it, i am pretty certain i am a member), i am curious who gave you my input because whoever it was got it wrong. could you please correct your records and restate your comment to read "As would the rest of the world except for Mudge who does not find CW's comments on this topic to be ethnocentric." Thanks a ton. I'll try to make sure I get my ROTW inputs in earlier next time.
ReplyDelete