Waterbury CT Republican paper weighs in >>Transatlantic wake-up call
Saturday, August 12, 2006
Copyright © 2006 Republican-American
Americans returned to their complacent ways after 9/11 receded into memory and issues that seemed of more immediate consequence took precedence. Led by its patriotism-challenged news media and a far-left contingent that no longer views America as a fundamentally good and decent country, the public judged itself safe from immediate harm and focused on the bloodshed in Iraq, the mistreatment of some prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay, and the Bush administration's secretive use of surveillance technology.
Thursday, news of a plot centered in London to blow up nine transatlantic airliners had Americans taking stock. How had we grown so distracted from the reality of the conflict between Western civilization and Islamofascism?
For many, including the narrow majority of Connecticut Democrats who voted in Tuesday's Senate primary, the real enemy is President Bush. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman lost because challenger Ned Lamont portrayed him as a friend and confidante of a president the far left loathes.
To be sure, the Bush administration is deserving of criticism on many fronts. But the notion articulated by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., that "our misguided policies are making America more hated in the world and making the war on terrorism harder to win," is partisan nonsense. It's troubling to contemplate that if Ted Kennedy controlled the intelligence services and interrogation methods of Britain, Pakistan and other allies, the London conspirators still would be moving forward.
There are many competing theories explaining the hatred borne by the Islamic world against America and its allies, but the rage flourished long before George W. Bush came to power. The London plot, for example, is practically identical to a 1995 scheme to blow up airliners over the Pacific.
Had the London conspiracy been successful, the toll likely would have exceeded 9/11. A single transatlantic Boeing 747 can carry more than 500 people, so as many as 10,000 might have died in a matter of minutes. Nor can this be dismissed as a British problem. The apparent terrorist "dry run" chillingly chronicled by Wall Street Journal reporter Annie Jacobsen after a flight in 2004 bears many of the earmarks of the London conspiracy.
David Brooks put it succinctly in his New York Times column Wednesday, the day before the London story broke: "The civilized world faces an arc of Islamic extremism that was not caused by American overreaction, and that will only get stronger if America withdraws."
By "withdraws," Mr. Brooks does not just mean pulling out of Iraq. The left envisions a much broader withdrawal to a Fortress America defended by fine words, diplomacy and a fantasy that the enemy will stand down if America does. No, the nation needs to get serious about a conflict many credible voices finally are identifying by its right name -- World War III.
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