Back To The War

I'm still reeling with the news of the attacks on London today. Certainly, this cannot be considered a surprise - instead it is a wake-up call.

The irony that this attack occurred at the beginning of the first G8 conference where the Global War On Terror was not on the agenda is a timely reminder of the real and perceived threats against civilization. President Bush, in his remarks at Gleneagles, favorably compared the G8 agenda with the agenda of death and destruction that radical Islam is following:

The contrast between what we've seen on the TV screens here, what's taken place in London and what's taking place here is incredibly vivid to me. On the one hand, we have people here who are working to alleviate poverty, to help rid the world of the pandemic of AIDS, working on ways to have a clean environment. And on the other hand, you've got people killing innocent people. And the contract couldn't be clearer between the intentions and the hearts of those of us who care deeply about human rights and human liberty, and those who kill -- those who have got such evil in their heart that they will take the lives of innocent folks.

We have to ask ourselves a question though. Is this something we really should be proud of? It is great to feel good about our good intentions, but when good intentions and the politics of emotion distract us from the task of killing terrorists how can we be proud? Our enemy is focused and committed to the destruction of our way of life. No matter how much we wish this wasn't so, the fact remains that it will not go away until we kill it. If we lose this war, does anyone seriously believe that the issues the G8 was addressing will improve?

Sadly we live in a time when some members of our society do not take the threat seriously. They have tried to distract us with the ginned up controversy of the "Downing Street Memo", false allegations of torture at Gitmo, pathetic cries of Quaran desecration, and of course defamatory claims of the moral equivalence of the American military with Nazis, and other mass murderers.

Can we please stop this now? I have no issues with those that think we are following the wrong path in the GWT by attacking the jihadists in Iraq. Serious people can disagree, and our culture has a long tradition of finding the right path through analysis, debate, and action. Dissent, however, requires ideas and today's dissenters have put forth few if any.

The few who have put forth alternative views have suggested that we need to increase homeland security efforts. While this is no doubt true, today's attacks on London illustrate the folly of concentrating your entire strategy on the homeland. In a free society it is impossible to prevent killers who are willing to use their own deaths as a means of killing others from carrying out their awful acts.

We must take the fight to the enemy and we must do it as one. Let's hope that the pleadings of unserious fools can be ignored in this next stage of the war. It would be nice if they would join the fight, but 4 years into the war this is unlikely to happen. Our enemy has shown his resolve. President Bush, illustrated the contrast in the terrorist's resolve with our own. The only way we can be free, is to round these people up, do what we must gain intelligence, and then kill them in their homes.

UPDATE: Another example of not taking the enemy seriously. I just saw Tony Blair get into a helicopter to head back to London. It is likely he will take the most direct route. I'm no military expert, but is this not playing into an enemy's hands? A serious enemy might anticipate such an action and stage in advance an operative with a shoulder fired missle on the most likely route. Why would they not put Blair in a jet to avoid this risk?