While much of the focus continues on Iraq, an equally important war must be
prosecuted and won at home. Like a vast shell game, we must find the
islamofascist pea inside growing numbers of pods. Is the mosque down the
street from you peaceful, or a sanctuary for terrorist plots? Is the Islamic
school teaching peaceful religion, or jihad? Is the government monitoring
them, in spite of opposition to such things from "civil libertarians"? How
many civil libertarians exist in the type of society OBL wishes to impose on
us? If bin Laden succeeds, the ACLU will be among the first organizations
crushed, after appropriate thanks for helping to make the takeover possible.
Last week, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported that the
Department of Homeland Security has failed to make even moderate progress
toward eight of 14 government benchmarks in the four years since it was
created. According to GAO, the least progress was made in improving
emergency preparedness and eliminating bureaucratic and technical barriers
to the sharing of information between government agencies. Whatever
bipartisanship remains in Washington should ask why, six years after 9/11,
the walls between intelligence agencies have not been torn down.
Last week, in advance of the Petraeus-Crocker reports, small groups of
journalists were invited to the White House for a "deep background" briefing
from a top administration official. While acknowledging many mistakes, the
official said that timelines for withdrawal are a prescription for disaster
and "the effects we wanted" in Iraq "have started to happen."
The only hope in this war is to win it, no matter how much frustration, or
division in Iraq (and America) and no matter how long it takes. Osama bin
Laden knows the alternative. And he is willing to impose it on the entire
world if we fail.