Posted by
Rich on Thursday, April 03, 2008 8:40:56 AM
The Sarasota Herald-Tribune has a excellent editorial titled, "NATO at a crossroads".
We
fully agree with the editorial board when is says that, "NATO should
not compromise its commitment to accomplishing the crucial mission in
Afghanistan."
Historically, there have been many issues facing
the West and by definition NATO, which as pointed out by the editorial
board, "has outlasted the Soviet Union, helped quell genocide in
southern Europe and successfully expanded beyond the imagination of its
creators."
NATO has morphed from an initially regional
self-defense alliance into a proactive Western military force involved
in a global war against radical Islamists.
As we have said many
times, the West is not fighting a War on Terror. Terror is a military
tactic. Nations do not fight wars against military tactics. Nations
fight wars over ideologies.
What we are fighting is a global War
against radical Islamists. Radical Islam includes nations such as Iran
and Syria. Radical Islam includes groups like the Taliban, Hamas,
Hezbollah and Al Qaeda. Diverse entities tied together by a single
ideology.
The Global War against Radical Islamists is like all
other wars. There are hot fronts and cold fronts in the war. The hot
fronts are currently in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The cold fronts
are in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australia, and North
America.
The hot fronts are characterized primarly by the
engagement of military forces in direct contact with the radical
Islamists, supplemented by economic, political, and diplomatic
initiatives.
The cold fronts are characterized by aggressive
intelligence/counter intelligence operations, economic, diplomatic,
political and law enforcement actions to prevent the infiltration of
radical Islamists who would do harm to the national security or launch
attacks against sovereign nations and their people.
We disagree with the report by the Atlantic Council of the United States. The West and NATO can only lose the Afghanistan front if the United States and Europe lose the will to win.
None
of the major radical Islamist military and para-military organizations,
taken together, can defeat the West and NATO. We can only defeat
ourselves by either pulling back from the fight or abandoning the
battlefield altogether.
There are many working toward just such
a scenario including radical Islamists, anti-war activists and some in
both liberal and conservative parties in Europe and North America.
We must maintain our resolve and win on all fronts and thereby win the global War Against Radical Islamists.
We
hope our Presidential candidates and the West in general enter into an
open discussion of this threat and work together with Muslims around
the world to help them solve their problem of radicals who have taken
over Islam and preach violence and death.