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| The U.N. and the war on terror |
| 2004-09-30 |
| Last week, the president was in New York to again beat on the United Nations and member nations to do more in the war on terrorism. While admirable, it was probably a waste of his time. Despite the antiterrorism rhetoric of the U.N. and the major world powers, and with the very significant exception of Great Britain and a few others, we are in a world war against radical Islam by ourselves. And we will continue to be in it by ourselves no matter who wins the election in November. Why? Because France, Germany, Russia and China have concluded this war could be our undoing. Hoping for that result and a corresponding reduction of our power and influence, they want no constructive part of it until there is persuasive evidence we are winning. Only then will they help us celebrate the "collective victory over world terrorism." We should get used to it — and understand this war will go on until at least this and probably the next two generations of radical Muslim male leaders, their supporters and "fighters" are killed or otherwise eliminated. Many of us are troubled by this stark reality, yet most know it is true. And we don't understand how any version of a great religion could today incite rational followers to kill themselves and thousands of innocents in the name of "God." But this war is nothing about religion or religious freedoms — it is about the absolute power to rule, total corruption and elimination of the obstacles to that — especially to responsible government, the enlightenment of the ignorant and the empowerment of women — this is what we represent, what the radicals fear the most, and why they hate us. Against this set of stark realities we have our presidential debates: It is both amusing and outrageous that a central campaign issue asserts we should, could or can have the substantive support of the U.N. and our major power "friends" (like France and Germany) in the war on terror. Buying this goofy "international" theory will put us to sleep for the next four years, during which two things will most certainly happen: We will be immediately taken up on our desire for international discussions — and they will go on endlessly, but with no substantive support from the other major powers. In fact, a traditional diplomatic initiative like this would be spun by the French and Germans as a major contribution (by them) in the war on terror. Remember, this is a war against us, and the major powers have already determined we may lose it. They will do nothing to change this result unless they determine that, despite their collective hopes, we will win. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #3 France, Germany, Russia and China have concluded this war could be our undoing. Look how well that mentality worked for them in WWII against Hitler. |
| Posted by: 2b 2004-09-30 12:09:52 PM |
| #2 France, Germany, Russia and China have concluded this war could be our undoing. Hoping for that result and a corresponding reduction of our power and influence, they want no constructive part of it until there is persuasive evidence we are winning. Bingo. Finally, some sanity injected into this debate. The only nations that we can expect to take our side are those who wish more, not less, use of American power in the world (UK, Australia, Israel) and those frontline non-muslim nations states that are directly menaced by the jihadists (India, Russia). NATO is dead. "The West" is a meaningless phrase that ignores the fact that increasingly muslim European nations will increasingly hew to the French policy of siding with anti-US jihadists, pan-arabists, mullahs etc in the middle east. |
| Posted by: lex 2004-09-30 10:47:15 AM |
| #1 The U.N. and the war on terror Oh, good. A quick read and I already know the conclusion. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2004-09-30 10:39:46 AM |