""Recruiting terrorists: Cut-and-run would work best

Published: September 28, 2006, 8:03 am

"Recruiting terrorists: Cut-and-run would work best

Editorial

Source UnionLeader.com

"America’s intelligence agencies have determined that the war in Iraq has helped recruit more terrorists. Well, duh. It’s called fighting back.

Democrats leapt upon this news as proof that the Iraq war has made us less safe. But that is not what the bulk of the available evidence, including the declassified portions of the National Intelligence Estimate, shows.

The NIE concludes that the No. 1 factor radicalizing Muslims continues to be "entrenched grievances, such as corruption, injustice, and fear of Western domination. . ." Those first two are exactly the grievances President Bush is trying to remedy, in part by replacing Iraq’s despotic regime with a democratic one.

Remember, the terrorists hit us before we toppled Saddam Hussein: In 1983, 1998, 2000 and 2001. Osama bin Laden declared war on the United States in 1998, not 2002.

A report released late last month by Britain’s Royal Institute for International Affairs also found that America’s presence in Iraq had helped recruit terrorists. But it concluded that the Iraq war has sharply reduced the appeal of violence as a political tool in the Muslim world and slashed the popularity of terror organizations among most Muslims: a net gain for the West. It has received little if any media attention in the United States.

The NIE suggests that the best way to combat radical Islam is to divide and conquer: separate the radicals from the majority of Muslims, and fight them. The British report suggests this is what the war in Iraq is doing.

Pulling out now because the terrorists have decided to fight back instead of roll over would give terrorists the best recruitment poster they could imagine. If we want to reduce their ranks, now is the time to hit them even harder and let them know that we will never give up the fight."

http://www.theunionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Recruiting+terrorists%3a+Cut-and-run+would+work+best&articleId=d366f161-339f-45ff-b460-7f4550f4461f

Entry #588

Comments

Todd - Sep 28, 2006, 1:54 pm

Absolutely Konane, you go!

One day the tipping point will occur, when Muslims are no longer afraid to speak out against that small minority of Muslims that commit terrorism. That will be the beginning of the end of widespread terrorism, and one day it will be stamped out.

It's the same way we stamped out numerous bad things in our history. Think about what our ancestors went through to wipe out slavery. At the time there were many, many people who questioned a war between the states, and naturally there were a lot of anti-war folk who wanted to avoid war at any cost, even at the cost of stagnation.

However, it is a fact of human history that great and important things are often achieved through conflict, and the demise of terrorism will be one of those things. After all, we would not even exist as the country we know and love today if it were not for warfare.

Not that warefare achieves all things. In fact, the vast minority of things should be achieved without war. But to dismiss it as an option is to be defeated without even trying.

I look forward to the day when I can point back to these blogs we're posting and see how the vision became reality. There are many people who can't see it, and do not believe that terrorism will ever be wiped out. It's the same type of people who said that the Soviet Union would always be there as our enemy (and would probably win the Cold War). I was on the side of history then, just as I will be for this fight.

Oh how I wish there was such a thing as blogs during the 1980s that I could point back to!

konane - Sep 28, 2006, 3:42 pm

Peaceful Muslims are as concerned over reprisal as the rest of the world, but it's going to have to be a joint effort from within the Muslim community along with the rest of the world toward a common goal .......... simply put we collectively aren't going to be bullied any longer. Some have spoken up already and hope more will follow.

War was the choice of terrorists ... they declared it on the world in the early 70's with their first hijacking. We in the US have tolerated them long enough and now giving them the only answer they're capable of understanding, force.

If they were capable of understanding words then Jimmy Carter would have bowled them over, Bill Clinton finished them off.

Right now their ears are trained on squishy feely cut and run liberals in Washington waiting to see what they can negotiate in their favor to help them achieve their stated goal, Islamafascism ruling the world.

Ya' know if we'd had blogs around in the 80's then the PC nazis would have censored/outlawed them in the 90's so it's just as well they exist now under an administration which allows us free speech even though we're at war.

As you aptly stated bloggers have a vision and from my perspective many can see, sense, discern, know what the overall outcome will be if a certain action is taken. Many feel it's blind trust but from my perspective of experience it's anything but blindness .... it's a sense of knowingness that can't be quantified.

""Recruiting terrorists: Cut-and-run would work best

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