Contributed by: filbert Monday, January 08 2007 @ 09:07 AM CST
The entire article is worth the time to read, but the concluding remarks are especially important:
It is the fate of the West, and in particular the United States, tohave to deal with the combined threat of Shia and Sunni extremists. Andfor all the differences that exist between them — and they aresignificant — they share some common features.
Their brand of radicalism is theocratic, totalitarian, illiberal,expansionist, violent, and deeply anti-Semitic and anti-American. AsPresident Bush has said, both Shia and Sunni militants want to imposetheir dark vision on the Middle East. And as we have seen withShia-dominated Iran’s support of the Sunni terrorist group Hamas, theycan find common ground when they confront what they believe is a commonenemy.
The war against global jihadism will be long, and we willexperience success and setbacks along the way. The temptation of theWest will be to grow impatient and, in the face of this long struggle,to grow weary. Some will demand a quick victory and, absent that, theywill want to withdraw from the battle. But this is a war from which wecannot withdraw. As we saw on September 11th, there are no safe harborsin which to hide. Our enemies have declared war on us, and theirhatreds cannot be sated. We will either defeat them, or they will comeafter us with the unsheathed sword.
All of us would prefer years of repose to years of conflict. Buthistory will not allow it. And so it once again rests with thisremarkable republic to do what we have done in the past: our duty.
(Of course, that this was written by someone working for Bush is enough to send the Bush Derangement Syndrome sufferers to stick their necks deeply into the sand. C’est la guerre.)