Our young soldiers from Clarksville or Kansas City cannot win a war against a totalitarian ideology with 1400 years of history, using superior force alone. Yet, if America must fight, let us do so offensively. Currently, the Bush administration is fighting defensively and lacks a strategy for winning. For example, we are not using our naval and air supremacy to its fullest. We are not seeking the absolute destruction of a totalitarian ideology that wants to annihilate everyone who does not adhere to it.
Better yet, let us understand the ideology of our enemy. The cause of poverty and misery in Islamic countries can be attributed, among other things, to population explosion and mind-control by imams, sheiks, ayatollahs, and assorted clerics. Rather than uplift the populace by providing marketable skills and enabling productivity, they have framed a rhetoric of Zionist and American conspiracy. In the resulting void has grown their hate-filled ideology.Sadly for the well-being of our country, liberals are so opposed to the president that they are more threatened by George Bush than Universal Jihad. As does Mr. Cooper, they refuse to grasp the nature of the problem.
The current crisis between militant Jihadists and the West is philosophical. It is a conflict between theological exclusivism and pluralistic democratic traditions. It is a conflict between Allah’s law and the people’s law as expressed in the United States Constitution. Therefore central to the war on terror must be great clarity about why we are fighting. When the reasons for the fight are clear and the nature of the enemy is fully grasped, victory is attainable.
Let us declare an ideological war on militant Jihadists. The American view of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness is infinitely superior to the Jihadist world-view of terror, death, and destruction. When we leave Iraq, let us do so on our terms, not those of “the terrorists.” Let us leave Baghdad only when we are confident that Iraq will not become a nation of militant Jihadists and a serious threat to the United States and global security.Let us create a united front of democracies who have historically been victims of global terror consisting of the United States, Britain, Western Europe, India, South Africa, Israel, Russia, and Japan so that all may join to fight the global problem of terrorism. The only way we can win the war is by demonstrating our resolve. Only then can we build a true international coalition against Jihadist terrorism.
Vijay Kumar, a Bellevue resident, is a Republican candidate for U.S. House of Representatives, Tennessee’s 5th District. You may reach him at
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You can read Jim Cooper's article in full here
