...born with the gift of laughter and a sense that the world was mad

A reason for optimism: Times columnist Gerard Baker says all signs point to the fact that the good guys are winning the wars—the one being waged against the jihadis in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the PR war being waged against the Islamists:

…The third and perhaps most significant advance of all in the War on Terror is the discrediting of the Islamist creed and its appeal.

This was first of all evident in Iraq, where the head-hacking frenzy of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his associates so alienated the majority of Muslims that it gave rise to the so-called Sunni Awakening that enabled the surge to be so effective.

But it has spread way beyond Iraq. As Lawrence Wright described in an important piece in The New Yorker last month, there is growing disgust not just among moderate Muslims but even among other jihadists at the extremism of the terrorists.

Deeply encouraging has been the widespread revulsion in Muslim communities in Europe - especially in Britain after the 7/7 attacks of three years ago. Some of the biggest intelligence breakthroughs in the past few years have been achieved from former al-Qaeda supporters who have turned against the movement.

There ought to be no surprise here. It's only their apologists in the Western media who really failed to see the intrinsic evil of Islamists. Those who have had to live with it have never been in much doubt about what it represents. Ask the people of Iran. Or those who fled the horrors of Afghanistan under the Taleban.

This is why we fight. Primarily, of course, to protect ourselves from the immediate threat of terrorist carnage, but also because we know that extending the embrace of a civilisation that liberates everyone makes us all safer.

Every death is an unspeakable tragedy. It's right that each time a soldier is killed in action we ask why. Was it really worth it?

Yes, the fight is worth it—if it indeed succeeds in thwarting the Dar al Islamists. But how is that possible if, as in Iraq and Afghanistan, jurisprudence continues to be grounded in sharia? Isn’t that like thwarting the Germans but allowing a modified version of Nazism to remain in effect?

Posted by: scaramouche at 11:51 | link | comments (2)

Comments:

#1  27 June 2008 - 11:54

 

Remember Rummie's nostrum: "Can we kill them (the jihadists) faster than the madrassahs can produce them?"

The answer is, regrettably, no.

Anonymous

#2  27 June 2008 - 12:02

 

Also, we're at the mercy of the oil ticks--the guys who fund the madrassahs--so long as our thirst for their output continues.

scaramouche

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