Why Don’t We Believe The Terrorists?

I have been trying to understand why so many people don’t believe the terrorists? Or is it that they believe them but don’t know what to do about it? Maybe they just don’t know how you deal with a bully?

We have Islamic extremists all around the world predicting dire and devastating consequences if the Western, Christian world doesn’t accept and embrace Allah and Islam as the perfect society. Their method of proselytizing is terror, death and destruction until we acquiesce to their request. And these are people that have shown that they can convince others to die to promote this ideology. Rather than following the advice of General George Patten and allowing them the opportunity to die for their beliefs, many people are claiming that we need to not fight them but give diplomacy a chance.

When Iran says that Israel will be annihilated and Fatah, Hamas and Hezbollah agree to help, why do are we critical of Israel for preventing it? In an interview with Haaretz Magazine, Prime Minister Tony Blair from Great Britain responded to the question:

Regarding Iran, do you agree with the comparisons to the 1930s that we often read about?

Mr. Blair:
When you have the President of a country as powerful as Iran say those things, it may be very foolish of us to assume he doesn't mean them. And when he's also trying to acquire a nuclear weapon, then I think the warning signs are pretty clear... I think for a president of a country to say they want to wipe another country off the face of the earth and at the same time he's trying to acquire a nuclear weapons capability - if we don't get worried about that, future historians will raise a few questions about us and about our judgment.

The sad truth is that diplomacy, discussion and compromise only work when both parties want to agree. When either or both parties are determined to get what they want and not give an inch to the other, no amount of talking will change the situation. That is exactly the course that Hitler took in his conquest of Europe. He would take a country, raise the ire of the world and then say that it was all he wanted and he would take no more. A short time later, he would do the same trick again.

We had exactly the same situation occur in Bosnia and Croatia with Slobodan Milosevic. He had no intention of discussing any of the United Nations resolutions until he had accomplished his objectives. When he reached a goal, he would then agree to discuss a cease fire. He would drag the discussions out until he was ready to advance his next agenda, walk away from the table and begin his next offensive. And the world waited while he massacred nearly 200,000 people.

Saddam Hussein put off the United Nations for 10 years, not defying their demands, just not following them. In spite of all the mis-information regarding weapons of mass destruction and how imminent a threat Iraq was to the United States, there was an interesting development that occurred with in the months after our invasion that has been overlooked. Within six months, the Irish Republican Army called a cease fire and disarmed, Libya offered to allow the UN in to inspect their nuclear program and Iran also agreed to discuss their nuclear program. These entities had defied the world for more than 20 years. They saw that the US would do more than cry foul and pout on the sidelines. They realized that they could be next.

Iran reversed its position when President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came into power and he saw the quandary we faced with the lack of support at home over the Iraqi war. Now he feels that he can do anything he wants because we wouldn’t dare take on another problem and there is no one else capable of stopping him.

What do we do now? Our position of strength has been eroded at home and our media has convinced the world that we are the source of all their problems. What do we do when Muslims around the world chant, “Death to America” and plot activities to realize it? People complain about the 45,000 Iraqis and 2500 Americans that have been killed in the 3 1/2 years of this war, that’s about 12,000 per year, but forget that under Saddam, 15,000 – 20,000 Iraqis were killed every year for 25 years. And those Iraqis who have been killed the past two years have been killed by the insurgents, not the US.

What we need to do is decide if we can sleep in our warm beds with full stomachs and not fear that the police or army will bust down our door and haul us off to be tortured or killed, while millions of people all around the world live with these fears every day as their leaders skim billions of dollars from the aid we send to pad their own retirement funds.

No one wants to be the world police. But, by a raise of hands, who wants to see the atrocities around the world continue? We need to show the millions of good people in Iraq that the few thousand insurgents can be defeated if they stand up and help us stamp them out. Then we must stay the course and see that it happens for if we leave before the job is done, democracy may never recover from the aftermath.