Further, “The Iraq conflict has become the cause celebre for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment of US involvement in the Muslim world and cultivating supporters for the global jihadist movement. Should jihadists leaving Iraq perceive themselves, and be perceived, to have failed, we judge fewer fighters will be inspired to carry on the fight.”
In other words, the single best strategy for beating back Islamic terrorism is to do precisely what Bush is doing: keep fighting in Iraq and push for greater democracy throughout the Islamic world.
Simply put, the New York Times, the left, and the Democrats are wrong. Winning in Iraq and winning the war on terror are now almost inseparable. Victory in Iraq, coupled with increased democratization there and throughout the Middle East, is the only clear path to victory in the war on terror.
The left is so wrong because they fail to understand this basic fact: radical Muslims don’t hate America because of what we do; they hate us because of who we are. Retreating from Iraq, abandoning Israel, or any other form of appeasement you can imagine will only make the problem worse. It would further the impression that God is on the side of the terrorists and that they are winning.
The true war is between American-style pluralism and a warped concept of Sharia law. As long as a pluralistic and prosperous America exists, Islamists will see us as a threat. It is the cultural magnetism we exert on young people throughout the world that they truly fear. It is cultural domination, not military domination that they are fighting.
Hence, the only conquest that will truly matter in this war will be a victory of pluralism over Islamic totalitarianism.
Bush understands that, and is fighting this war where it needs to be fought: defeating terrorists through the exporting of democracy to the heart of the Islamic world, in Iraq.
And the April National Intelligence Estimate makes that perfectly clear. That is, to anyone who actually read it.