As bloggers and jounalists pick through the 9/11 Panel's report, many interesting things come to light.
Wizbang found this
Chapter 12, "What To Do? A Global Strategy" (page 378 of pdf)...In this sense, 9/11 has taught us that terrorism against American interests “over there” should be regarded just as we regard terrorism against America “over here.” In this same sense, the American homeland is the planet. But the enemy is not just “terrorism,” some generic evil. This vagueness blurs the strategy. The catastrophic threat at this moment in history is more specific. It is the threat posed by Islamist terrorism —especially the al Qaeda network, its affiliates, and its ideology.
As we mentioned in chapter 2, Usama Bin Ladin and other Islamist terrorist leaders draw on a long tradition of extreme intolerance within one stream of Islam (a minority tradition), from at least Ibn Taimiyyah, through the founders of Wahhabism, through the Muslim Brotherhood, to Sayyid Qutb. That stream is motivated by religion and does not distinguish politics from religion, thus distorting both. It is further fed by grievances stressed by Bin Ladin and widely felt throughout the Muslim world—against the U.S. military presence in the Middle East, policies perceived as anti-Arab and anti-Muslim, and support of Israel. Bin Ladin and Islamist terrorists mean exactly what they say: to them America is the font of all evil, the “head of the snake,” and it must be converted or destroyed.
It is not a position with which Americans can bargain or negotiate. With it there is no common ground—not even respect for life—on which to begin a dialogue. It can only be destroyed or utterly isolated.
(via Instapundit)
It is not so much that this is a startling conclusion, I have said for years that we are in a war with a group of people who's ideology is diametrically opposed to ours; with a mutually exclusive world view.
What is important is that a bi-partisan report, that many thought would be a political hack job, has put their imprimatur on what most who are not neo-marxist or devotely anti-war, have been saying all along:
These people must be confronted where they are and defeated.
And a successful strategy for defeating them must include a transformation of the Middle East and other Islamic dicatorships to systems that embrace economic and political freedom.
The only way to defeat a competing ideology is to eliminate it root and leaf.
The question some who are of the "nuanced" ilk will be: should we be imposing our way of life on others? What makes us so right?
Well, frankly, I don't know that we are so "right" in the grand scheme of things. But I must choose a side to be on. There is no other option. And I am on the side of political and economic freedom. As a result, I intend to do everything I can to see my side prevail. And I am perfectly willing to let history decide "right" and "wrong".
And I don't even know what it means to "impose" freedom on others. How exactly does that work? Do people really think about what they are saying? How does someone who does not have the choice of their political representation get freedom imposed upon them? Did the black slaves have freedom imposed upon them by the 14th Amendment?
People who live under the boot of oppression either remain in such a condition or are freed from it.
The 9/11 Panel has come out firmly on the side of no negotiation with the Islamic fascists, as well as recommending that the US must be aggressive and take the fight to the enemy if we are to win.
We can not assume the decadent posture of the Europeans nor the cowardly posture of Spain and the Phillippines.
And while politicians like Sen Kerry seem to want to highlight the Intelligence reorganization recommendations, the most important recommendations of this Panel is the ones that speak of no common ground, no dialogue....
No negotiation.
Now on the street tonight the lights grow dim
The walls of my room are closing in
There's a war outside still raging
You say it ain't ours anymore to win
I want to sleep beneath
Peaceful skies in my lover's bed
With a wide open country in my eyes
And these romantic dreams in my headWell, we made a promise we swore we'd always remember
No retreat, baby, no surrender
Like soldiers in the winter's night
With a vow to defend
No retreat, baby, no surrender- Bruce Springsteen
