Another reminder of the increasing threat to Europe comes from the head of
British intelligence. The director general of MI5, Eliza Manningham-Buller,
said as many as 30 major terrorist plots are being planned in the country
and that future threats could involve chemical and nuclear technology. She
said young Muslims are being groomed to become suicide bombers and that MI5
agents are tracking 1,600 suspects, most of whom were born in Britain and
are linked to al-Qaeda in Pakistan. Prime Minister Tony Blair, who once
called for the expulsion of seditionist radicals and the closing of some
mosques, has been rebuffed by the British courts, which continue to treat
terrorism as a crime problem instead of a war. Radical Muslims have flooded
Europe, but Europeans pretend they will not be harmed if they imagine the
enemy poses no threat.
Both a novelist and a realist could write the following scenario: In an
effort to take Iraq off the table as an issue in the 2008 presidential
campaign, the Bush administration adopts most of the provisions of the Iraq
Study Group. In a modern version of the Paris Peace Talks, which allowed the
United States to have "peace with honor" and withdraw from Vietnam
(resulting in the deaths, imprisonment and "re-education" of unknown numbers
of Vietnamese who wanted to be free), the administration then orders a
"redeployment" of forces after "negotiations" with Syria and Iran
(recommended by Blair). This allows just enough time for American troops to
leave before al-Qaeda murders the elected leadership and takes over Iraq.
Meanwhile in the United States, mosques and Islamic schools paid for by the
extremist Wahhabi sect, multiply like fast-food franchises. Terrorists are
imported and recruited from prisons. Al-Qaeda announces that weapons of mass
destruction have been placed in key American and European cities. They
demand that the United States withdraw its protection of Israel. If we
refuse, they threaten to detonate their weapons, killing millions of people.
What president, or prime minister, will reject that demand? After
capitulating on the installment plan, who will have the political or moral
capital (or military capacity) to stop Armageddon?