There is no photograph of Satan, so we must improvise with what we have:
Osama bin Laden.
Looking like a Middle East version of a bad "Just for Men" beard dye
commercial, OBL has resurfaced to deliver another rambling address to
America. Conversion to Islam, he said, would mean no taxes, just a low
single digit "alms" requirement. Maybe he's trying to appeal to the
Republican base. The downside to his vision of no taxes and its accompanying
fundamentalist baggage would mean a transformation in our way of life; from
prosperity and individuality, to living in dirt and serfdom. No thanks. Our
nation was born fighting and defeating tyranny and only fighting and
defeating this latest tyranny will sustain it.
The gist of the opposition to the war and to the reports by Gen. David
Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker is that they are either not telling the
truth about Iraq, or they are not telling the entire truth. Facts and
figures are in dispute about the number of sectarian killings and the
general level of violence in various Iraqi provinces. Some areas appear less
violent than others, but a political settlement remains elusive.
Opponents of the war and of continued American involvement cannot forecast
what will happen if the United States were to pullout before some stability
is established. Neither will they accept responsibility should a pullout
produce a bloodbath, followed by a huge terrorist base that would surely
spawn new and more devastating attacks on the United States.
We can't suddenly say, "never mind" and pretend what we've been engaged in
these six years is no longer of any consequence. While we debate timetables
and withdrawal, Osama and his legions are taking the long view. They want to
penetrate America with their twisted ideology until there are sufficient
fanatics prepared to reign-down massive death and destruction on us. They've
proved they are serious, they continue to advertise their future plans and
they are even now building a religious and educational infrastructure inside
the United States from which terrorist attacks could be carried out.
Many mistakes - political and military - were made at the start of this war,
including repeated claims that islamofascism was not a threat. While those
mistakes were costly, it would be a colossal mistake with catastrophic
consequences to abandon this war until it ends on terms favorable to the
United States and Iraqis who have repeatedly braved death to vote for a new
government.
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.