iraqi prime minister maliki addressed a joint session of congress today, and this is part of what he said.
Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, our nascent democracy faces numerous challenges and impediments, but our resolve is unbreakable and we will overcome them.
The greatest threat Iraq’s people face is terror: terror inflicted by extremists who value no life and who depend on the fear their wanton murder and destruction creates.
They have poured acid into Iraq’s dictatorial wounds and created many of their own.
Iraq is free, and the terrorists cannot stand this.
They hope to undermine our democratically elected government through the random killing of civilians. They want to destroy Iraq’s future by assassinating our leading scientific, political and community leaders. Above all, they wish to spread fear.
Do not think that this is an Iraqi problem. This terrorist front is a threat to every free country in the world and their citizens. What is at stake is nothing less than our freedom and liberty.
Confronting and dealing with this challenge is the responsibility of every liberal democracy that values its freedom. Iraq is the battle that will determine the war. If, in continued partnership, we have the strength of mind and commitment to defeat the terrorists and their ideology in Iraq, they will never be able to recover.
that’s the bigger issue here. terrorists must not be able to dictate the direction of a country. that’s what the terrorists are trying to do in iraq. we cannot allow this. terrorism won’t stop after iraq, but we need to deal the islamic extremists as many damaging blows as we can. that’s why we need to support israel and any other country that is actively fighting terrorists. israel is doing its part against terrorism in its current struggle against hezbollah, but it’s a recurring problem for them. we may never see the end to the war against terrorism. that doesn’t mean that we should ignore the growing threat it poses to each and every one of us.
Fighting terrorism means not giving terrorists protections under the geneva conventions. It means killing them in the field of battle and doing whatever is necessary to extract information out of them.
Fighting terrorism means allowing our military to fight the battle and worry about hearts and minds later.
Fighting terrorism means being consistent across the board and not deviating from the battle plan.
Fighting terrorism means vividly recalling and remembering history which will remind all of us that the terrorists believe us to have weak stomachs for casualties and long, drawn out battles.
Fighting terrorism has everything to do with common sense and nothing to do with politics.
Fighting terrorism means protecting ourselves first, placing a higher priority on the safety of Americans and America. It requires a re-dedication to defending our freedom and our liberty.
Fighting terrorism means that we do not assist the enemy by giving them protections under international law or rules of war. It means we do not grant terrorists days in court or access to legal counsel.
Fighting terrorism in a serious way means that we must destroy those with whom we disagree.
Fighting terrorism is a serious way means that Republicans must remain in positions of power and dominant influence and Democrats must remain the irrelevant minority.
This would make an excellent post. I don’t think I could have said it any better than that.
Both you and your commentors have forgotten a basic fact of history: no terrorist has ever been defeated by conventional means. Engaging an enemy that hides within people who are not your enemy only causes those people to also become your enemy.
When we leave Iraq, some ‘terorrists’ will simply return to their normal lives, some will try to follow us where ever we go, others will move on to another cause, but, in Iraq anyway, we will stop breeding more terrorists.
Now, I understand we cannot simply cease engaging the Middle East. It’s a global society, and as long as we have interests there we are going to p*ss off people like Osama bin Laden. But bin Laden is not that threatening. He’s like a bad boxer who got one punch in. We could have taken him out in Afghanistan. We can live with the bin Laden’s of the world. We can find them, hunt them down, and kill or capture them. Unfortunately, they will occassionally do damage to us.
But if we continue our wholesale destruction of the Arab Street, we will create 5 bin Ladens for every one we kill or capture. They become folk heroes, like some sort of vigilante, not like the twisted psychopaths they really are.
As for Israel, they need to pay for their mistakes following the creation of a jewish state. Reparations for land lost by Arabs is necessary, and would probably be offset by nations such as the US and EU. East Jeruselem has to be returned to the Arabs. For their part, the Arabs must understand they are NEVER going to send Israel into the Med. Israel is here to stay, they need to get used to it. Egypt and Jordan have accepted that. Syria was on the verge in the late 90s and so was the PLO. As Clinton said about Arafat, “that was the best deal he was going to get.” Well, it wasn’t good enough. Israel has to learn that or terrorism in the country will continue ad infinitum.
We have to learn that provoking civilian populations creates more terrorists. That’s why terrorists WANT us to engage them in places like Iraq!
You say ‘we could have taken him (bin Laden) out in Afghanistan.’ That was in ’01. Clinton could have taken bin Laden out in ’96 and we would have avoided all this crap.
As to your absurd statements about Israel…I’m not sure where to begin.
+ What mistakes did Israel make? Israel didn’t create their own state, the United Nations did.
+ Reparations? Why?
+ The EU is not a ‘nation.’
+ East Jerusalem to Arabs? Why? What right do the Arabs have to any of Jerusalem?
+ Clinton forced Barak to concede half of Jerusalem to the PLO. The fact that Arafat rejected the offer PROVES that the Arabs have no interest in ‘peace.’
+ The only way to deal with terrorists is to fight them and kill them. Appeasing them with land doesn’t work, as we’ve learned all too well.