The worldwide islamist movement controls nation states, Iran, Sudan, Saudi Arabia (kind of) and one other I forget, and did control Afghanistan. It has powerful 5th columns in other nation states. Not long ago, an islamist 5th columnist in Pakistan, Khan, had control over that nation's nuclear bomb button, and was disseminating nuclear tech to enemies of democracy, like N. Korea, Iran and Libya. Without the support of nation states, bin Laden and al Qaeda would never have been anything worth noting. And they are only one of mnay such Islamist terrorist groups.
The Islamists, who very arguably are following the Koran's War Verses to the letter, want to see, first, all islamic nations under their control and ruled according to Sharia Law. Then, they want the same for all other nations. That is why they are actively committing terror and war in a great many nations around the globe, and is why they committed a genocide against Sudanese Christians and now Black Sudanese Muslims, who practise a much more benign form of the Islam. The Islamists hate democracy, and say so flat out, because it is rule of man by man, rather than rule of man by Allah according to Islamic Law (Sharia). They know that it is a competing ideology they cannot defeat, if it is a matter of hearts and minds. We saw that in iraq when they tried to prevent the election from taking place, and now through sustained terror try to undermine its rise.
What motivated 9/11 was that the US was in the Islamists' way with respect to their plans to take over islamic nations. They thought they could scare the US out of the Middle East so they'd be freer to march on, as they had been.
Iraq is about many things, like, certainly, "preemptive action." That is, as the EU was undermining sanctions against Hussein (because of their secret oil for food and other such scandalous business deals), soon he would have been shorn of them, and able to reaquire nuclear technology, then the bomb. Although he was not an islamist himself, he did have a "the friend of my enemy is my friend" arrangement with them. Sooner or later he would have used the bomb to invade other Arab natuions, and, very possibly, to hand off to Al Qaeda or such islamkst group. the war was also about injecting democracy into the ME as to offer Arabs and others, like Persians, an alternative to military dictatorship and Islamism.
For all of the above, Blair was right to support the US in a war to protect democracy. Every free citizen in the world had and has something significant at stake.
As i said before, the islamkists are active everywhere in the world, and after gaining control of the Arab and Islamic world - and they were on the way towards achieving that goal - they would have come after us. Being nihilist by nature, and believing that death in teh service of islam assures entry to heaven, they would have used atomic bombs. If you doubt that, consider their suicide bomber cult. Consider the incredible brashness of attacking the US, when it is so much more powerful than they.
What happened yesterday was a tragedy. But in the bigger scheme of thngs, the war against islamist (not islamic) terror is akin to having taken on Hitler in the early and mid 30's, before he became too powerful. As you all know, Churchill warned what Hitler was up to, and was laughed off. This time, a few people in power, Bush, Blair, Howard, and a handful of others, were up to the foresight and challenge.
If you doubt thatt eh war in iraq is about this, or succeeding, consider the following that has occurred as a result of it:
* Much of the Islamist movement has moved its resources there to fight
the US. That means it is far easier to defeat them in this
concentrated area. What's more, we have to ask why they have done
that? The answerr is simple: Democracy is their greatest enemy. An
Iraqi democracy, right in the heart of the Islamic heartland, would
mean their doom. No, it won't be instantaneous. They'll continue to
live on, for a while. But they will have suffered a total ideological
loss. Their military loss will follow (although the nature of the War
Verses and Sharia Law means that a residual Islamist movement will
survive for many years attempting to destroy Islamic democracy,
failingly.)
You may argue that the war has been a great recruitment campaign for
them. That is no less wrong than arguing that taking on the Nazis only
recruited more Nazis and fascists worldwide to the cause. The bottom
line is that the winning side recruits the most;the losers the least.
By making the Islamists into the losers, we weaken, then destroy,
their recruitment.
* There have been no terrorist attacks on the US, in part because the
Islamists have concentrated their resources in Iraq.
*Libya renounces nuclear weapons
* Syria leaves Lebanon, which then has elections.
* Pakistan closes over 1,000 madrassahs, and gets the islamist Khan
away from the nuclear weapons button. he no longer sends nuclear tech
to iran, North Korea, Libya and to other enemies of democracy.
* Iraq has had elections, is forming concensual government, and is a
beacon for democratically minded Muslims everywhere.
* Arab intellectuals are no longer afraid to talk about democracy.
* Some Arab nations have liberalized and others appear ready to follow.
Put all that together, and you the seeds of a revolution that will
defeat islamism.
™ Version 4.2
