Unfortunately, given what we've seen the last few months, there is likely to be little support worldwide, for a steadily escalating campaign to force Saudi Arabia to stop supporting terrorism. For instance, an arms embargo is fairly useless, unless all the other big industrialized countries participate. So the task looks very difficult.
And our unilateral attack on Iraq will lessen the cooperation of others, in future campaigns against the real Terrorist Safe Havens. Instead of "securing our flank", we're "cutting ourself off at the knees".
Remember that article I posted a while ago, about Saudi funding and training of Islamic clerics in U.S. prisons, spreading a "U.S. is evil" message? The U.S. should be organizing/funding/championing thousands of similar programs, targetting all the disgrauntled "have-not" groups in every Islamic country. That's how to win the WarOnTerrorism.
Women are half the population. They have a social status slightly higher than livestock, under Sharia. It ought to be possible to convince them that Secular Democracy is a Better Idea. There are dozens of repressed minority ethnic groups, from Morrocco to Indonesia, who would benefit from pluralism, Liberalism (capital L). And so on. And if the existing governments in Islamic countries try to stop this HeartsAndMinds campaigns, then that tells us clearly who our real enemies are. |
