Hi Neocon; Interesting post. Re: "The Germans supported Hitler because he seemed a man of destiny, someone who brought prosperity, honor, and military victory to their country. His mystique was the lynchpin of the system. Once it became clear that he was not a man of destiny, but was driving Germany into ruin, the bomb plots started. The big turning points were Stalingrad and the success in establishing a beach head in Normandy.
Similarly, it is when it is apparent that all of these suicidal tactics are only buying terrorists more pain, and that Allah is not favoring them against the Great Satan, that the tide will turn."
I fail to see the justification for your hope that the tide will turn.
On the one hand, Hitler's promise was that Europe would be united (or reunited) under a third empire, or Reich. When the Allies landed at Normandy, it began to look like he was a bit, uh, wrong. All it took to destroy Hitler's promise was to conquer Germany and put his regime out of power.
Okay, we conquered Afghanistan and put the Taliban out of power, but terrorism is ON THE INCREASE. So what regime are we going to conquer now? The promise of the Islamic Fundamentalists is that they will free the Middle East of (our) corrupting influence. I don't recall that they put a date on when they will finish. In any case, religious organizations are famous for postponing events that they have previously announced for a particular day.
To the extent that your weak analogy holds water, it shows that stamping out terrorism is quite hopeless.
Hey, maybe you should begin put off giving Bush credit for whipping terrorism until terrorism shows signed of at least declining.
-- Carl |
