The Iraq war is considerably worse than Vietnam in that few people were arguing, 12 months on, that the war in Vietnam was a diversion from the contest with Communism.
First off, I would agree that fighting terrorism requires a robust police and investigative effort designed to disrupt and interdict actual terrorist attempts against actual targets.
However, terrorism does not just spontaneously ignite without having "fuel" to feed the flames. And that fuel is the social and political hopelessness that currently exists within the Middle East under the existing repressive and corrupt governments there. The fundamentalists prey on the discontent and despair that prevails there, and attempt to funnel it into a militant ideo-theology aimed at destroying the west.
We've seen that international political pressure has just not been effective in altering the totalitarian reality in Iraq. Saddam's regime controlled all the means of repression and information for that society. Thus, it required a military overthrow of that regime, followed by the creation of an effective governmental foundation and economic restructuring. Thus, I would opine that the strategy is to assist in making Iraq into a example of how the Arab world can find a new economic and social vision that will improve the economic lives of millions of its people.
But furthermore, with the current waves of terrorist activities against muslims who are cooperating with the CPA efforts, it is irrefutably dispelling the notion that muslims were not responsible for the 9/11 suicide attacks. And it is dispelling the belief that it was a American/Jewish conspiracy aimed at generating a clash of civilizations and the destruction of Islam.
What is slowly being initiated is the understanding that Islamic militancy offers only a vision of destruction and repression, not economic prosperity and personal liberty. Iran has shown that fundamentalist governments don't have the first clue how to create and sustain a workable economy that can deal with the demographic baby boom sweeping through the region.
And the overthrow of Saddam, despite the resistance by certain Islamic militants, has sent a message to many other regimes in the region that if they don't fundamentally change the manner in which they educate and instill social and moral values into their children.
And this pertains to Iraq as well.. We cannot permit the perception that the US has an obligation to solve all of their problems for them. They have to take charge of their own future, and within defined international norms of society, carve out a vision of dignity and prosperity that is sustainable and egalitarian..
Iraq, IMO, was crucial as a first step towards altering the direction of economic and social progress in the region. It isn't going to be easy, nor bloodless. But it does plant the democratic "flag" squarely in the middle of some of the most troublesome regimes in the muslim world and it's challenging the militants to knock it down.
And the more they try and knock it down, the more they will be forced to wage their war and suicide bombings, not against Americans, but against the Iraqi people themselves.
And that can only undermine their popularity, IMO.. Because it makes the Arab "street" recognize that they are not immune to the wrath of the reactionary forces seeking to dominate their religion and societies.
So yes.. police efforts in the US are helpful to thwarting Islamo-Fascist attacks against the US. But more important is to carry out a "forward defense" by attacking the causes from which the militants are drawing support.
Hawk |
