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To: LindyBill who wrote (147357)	11/17/2005 10:12:15 AM
From: skinowski	Respond to of 793883

Thanks. I thought for a long time that the best - and most productive - way of understanding Al Qaeda and radical Islamists in general is that they are professional revolutionaries, committed to change the world in accordance with their vision. A very dangerous breed, and very easy to underestimate -- just like Leninists and the early Nazi movements were underestimated.

To: LindyBill who wrote (147357)	11/17/2005 10:15:27 AM
From: carranza2	Respond to of 793883

Thanks for bringing that brilliant essay here. It is far too complex in its analysis for most voters to understand the historical analogies it presents, but its bottom line is easy enough to comprehend: Unless we want to deal with Jihadism for the next few decades as a viable challenge to the West much like we dealt with Soviet-style communism, a challenge that will be more difficult thanks to Jihadism's amoeba-like structure and lack of a defined nation-state, winning in Iraq and Afghanistan is absolutely necessary. The price now is a pittance compared to the price later. At one point in the debate about Iraq, these points were being regularly made and accepted because they are reasonable, logical and correct. It is a wonder that the Bush Administration, though fully cognizant of the need to keep its focus on the kinds of points made in the essay, has somehow allowed the debate to shift to the absolutely inane issue of whether W lied or somehow shiftily manipulated intelligence to get us into a war for reasons which are somehow suspect. I am glad to finally see some reaction on the part of the Administration to these ludicrous attacks, but I am disheartened that the essential reasons for Iraq and Afghanistan, as reflected in the essay you linked, are not being made in the media on a regular and consistent basis.