The McCain Amendment
I might be alone on this one, but I do care about what other people of the world think about the United States. Not what the holier-then-thou NGO’s of the UN, Amnesty International, and the plethora of others that curse the name of the US under the trumped-up-charge of imperialism. Nor do I care one iota what the governments of France, Spain, Venezuela, Iran, or North Korea think about the US for whatever their pandering reasons. But I do care, passionately, what the other 95% of the world population thinks about the United States and what she represents.
We hear regularly about the importance of what the word is on the Arab street, in regards to how well the US is winning the ‘hearts and minds’ in this War on Terrorism. Make no mistake the War on Terrorism is being fought in Iraq, but it is also being fought in Cairo street markets, the ports of Indonesia, and the deserts of Saudi Arabia. There always has been, and always will be those who hate the United States. But if we are to win this war, if we hope to ever stem the tide of new recruits into this nihilistic mentality of fundamentalist Islam, we must win on the grounds that we are better then the suicide alternative.
Greg is right, al-Qaeda lost today, as did ever future enemy of the United States. Don’t be so foolish as to think that this is the last war we shall ever fight. By overwhelming majorities the congress spoke up and said ‘we shall never sell-out our principles, not today or ever’. More important then just fighting terrorism, we must defeat it at the root casual level, and that means fighting with justice and humanity to annihilate the culture of barbarism and unspeakable cruelty that sows the seeds of religious fundamentalism in the Islamic world. Only then can we truly proclaim victory, not from the deck of an aircraft carrier, but from streets of Tehran.
We hear regularly about the importance of what the word is on the Arab street, in regards to how well the US is winning the ‘hearts and minds’ in this War on Terrorism. Make no mistake the War on Terrorism is being fought in Iraq, but it is also being fought in Cairo street markets, the ports of Indonesia, and the deserts of Saudi Arabia. There always has been, and always will be those who hate the United States. But if we are to win this war, if we hope to ever stem the tide of new recruits into this nihilistic mentality of fundamentalist Islam, we must win on the grounds that we are better then the suicide alternative.
Greg is right, al-Qaeda lost today, as did ever future enemy of the United States. Don’t be so foolish as to think that this is the last war we shall ever fight. By overwhelming majorities the congress spoke up and said ‘we shall never sell-out our principles, not today or ever’. More important then just fighting terrorism, we must defeat it at the root casual level, and that means fighting with justice and humanity to annihilate the culture of barbarism and unspeakable cruelty that sows the seeds of religious fundamentalism in the Islamic world. Only then can we truly proclaim victory, not from the deck of an aircraft carrier, but from streets of Tehran.