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Listening to Liberals: an Exercise in Folly

The war in Iraq may be drawing to a close, but the war against common sense rages on.  For a good summary of everything wrong with the liberal view of the global war against Islamist terrorism, look no further than Rosa Brooks' sloppy Op-Ed column published in the LA Times on December 4.

In this column, Brooks lumps together the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, the Virginia Tech rampage, the D.C. Sniper attacks, 9/11, the Oklahoma City Bombing, and the first century Zealots of Judea to make a few asinine points:  

• Terrorism has been around for a long time: "Get used to it"
  
• Disturbed adolescents, crazy ideologues, and international networks of radical Islamists are all pretty much of the same species and can be neutralized with "sober" law enforcement tactics. Military conflicts are unnecessary and, in fact, probably make things worse by "effectively lump[ing] together many different organizations motivated by many different grievances."
  
• By responding to terrorist attacks with decisive action, were are "lashing out," and this "increases the psychological effectiveness of terrorist tactics."
  
• Appeasement is the ultimate solution.

Leftists (including Obama & friends) need to be educated to understand that international Islamist terrorism is a unique, serious and deadly problem much like a metastatic cancer.  

To treat metastatic cancer, careful efforts to make an accurate diagnosis and to assess the extent of the disease must be followed by an aggressive and individualized treatment regimen. The goal of course is to KILL the cancer and spare the patient.  

Similarly, to deal with the problem of international Islamist terrorism, we must identify the problem accurately, continously assess the growth of new terrorist networks, and persue aggressive efforts to target and KILL the terrorists.  

Confusing the activities of sophisticated networks of well-funded international Islamist terrorists with the cowardly acts of homegrown sociopathic murders is as dangerous as misdiagnosing a deadly cancer.  No problem can be effectively addressed if it is not properly identified.

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Will the Terrorists Win?

Islamic terrorism is the whole world's problem. The recent events in Mumbai, India highlight that fact. The Islamists are prepared to fight anywhere at anytime and pay any price. In Mumbai, they made a symbolic effort to target Americans, Britons and Jews, but most of the casualties were locals caught in the gunfire. Make no mistake: Islamic terrorism is a cancer that isn't going to stop spreading until either it has been stopped in its tracks by people who have the courage to be proactive, or it has taken over the whole world and it begins to implode on itself. 

This is not radial Islam vs. the neocons. This isn't radical Islam vs. America. This isn't radical Islam vs. Christianity. This is not radical Islam vs. the West. This is radical Islam vs. anyone who dares to stand in the way. Atheist, Christian, Jew, Hindu, Buddhist, moderate Muslim, black, white, yellow, brown, liberal, conservative, Democrat, Republican, communist, socialist, capitalist, rich, or poor...it doesn't matter who you are or where you live. If you get in the way, or if you just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, you're in trouble. Collateral damage is of no concern to Islamic terrorists.

So we can take on terrorism one terrorist attack at a time or we can be smart about it. We can wait until the problem gets bigger or we can act now. We can do just enough to delay the inevitable or we can act to win the struggle decisively. We can wait until we are surrounded on all sides or we can take the fight to their backyard. We can give up after fighting a for a few difficult years or we can hold out longer than our very patient enemies.

The fight against Islamic terrorism will be long, expensive and bloody. Are we up to the challenge?

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