[Rhodes22-list] Know the Enemy

[3drecon at comcast.net]

Brad,
    First, I will say I was no fan of the Clintons, J. Carter or the liberal approach in general.  Having said that, this war with Islam has been going on for centuries (someone on the list (you?) sent the map of Middle East conflicts).  Western Europe fought the Ottomans on and off for years.  The Arabs always maintained shaky truces with their colonial masters but the tenant of their jihad remained the same.  1948 provided the means, a manageable target, propaganda, a general unifying message for them.  Now they could focus the hatred against anything non-muslim.  I don't blame Jimmy Carter for creating the jihad or fueling it.  I don't agree with his approach, and hindsight would teach he fumbled, but he thought it best at the time and with the USSR and China in play, he had a lot to consider.   

     Reagan dropped the ball when he withdrew the USMC from Lebanon and I am a great fan of the Gipper.  On that issue, I completely disagreed with him.  He had an opportunity there to slam them good in the name of retaliation.

    Clinton inherited the problem.  I completely disagree with his approach to treat international terrorism as a criminal justice issue, but that is the defining difference between the Democrats and the Republicans.  The Democrats want to treat this "war" as a criminal issue, the Republicans want to treat it like a war.

     Treating the situation like a criminal problem immediately confers rights on the terrorists and limits our approach to capturing them (law enforcement's mission is not to break things and kill the bad guys as a first resort).  Then in court, punishment is limited and we have to disclose how we caught them (secret intelligence methods) or gathered evidence.  Then there are warrants, extradition.  The advantage is, we don't send hundreds of troops.  It costs less. We, hopefully, get the cooperation of many nations and some cooperate behind the scenes and so are more likely to cooperate.

    Going to war with them has the disadvantages.  We are not fighting a sovereign nation with a standing army with a clear change of command.  Casualties are broadcast daily and the population becomes weary of the war (the same thing even happened in WWII and the goals were more clear than at anytime since).  I costs the country vast amounts of its treasure.  They have a PR advantage and other countries may not agree with us.  There are those countries that might like to cooperate but won't because of  their population sentiments (for example: the Arab street).  Our Army can't just bomb and shoot for fear of colateral damage which is less of a consideration when facing another army.

   I could go on.  I like this video though because it makes clear who the enemy really is and what they say when the western camera is not on them.

Philip


-------------- Original message -------------- 
From: "Brad Haslett" <flybrad at gmail.com> 

> Philip, 
> 
> Thanks for the video. I'm about halfway through the book "The Looming 
> Towers", which is what the recent TV documentary that upset the Clintonites 
> so much was based on. Most of the book is about the rise of al Qaeda and 
> the jihadists. I'm convinced by everything I've read from various sources 
> this will be a long difficult struggle. Iraq is frustrating because we are 
> fighting so many different entities there. Yeah, it has a patina of a 
> Shiite v Suni civil war, but what goes seldom mentioned is the outside 
> players; Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and others that provide men and 
> arms to the Iraqi insurgents. There's plenty to criticise about the conduct 
> of the battle for Iraq, but I firmly believe it is but one front in a much 
> larger war. If we don't have the stomach to continue the fight there, the 
> fight will come to us on our soil. Just ask Osama. Frankly, al Qaeda is 
> much better at PR than we are. They must be laughing their asses off at how 
> the Muslim Brotherhood has stirred Somali cab drivers into action in the 
> Midwest while we discuss color codes. 
> 
> Brad 
> 
> 
> On 11/2/06, 3drecon at comcast.net <3drecon at comcast.net> wrote: 
> > 
> > Want to know how the muslims really feel about us? 
> > This is a 12 minute version of a longer documentary film. It seems these 
> > people have no political correctness issues to slow them down. 
> > 
> > Philip 
> > 
> > 
> > Don't care? No problem: 
> > 
> > Learn Arabic. And buy a Koran. 
> > 
> > 
> > Unless you're willing to fight them. 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6331994107023396223&hl=en 
> > __________________________________________________ 
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> > 
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