“9/11 has taught us that terrorism against American interests ‘over there’ should be regarded just as we regard terrorism against America ‘over here.’ In this same sense, the American homeland is the planet. But the enemy is not just ‘terrorism,’ some generic evil. This vagueness blurs the strategy. The catastrophic threat at this moment in history is more specific. It is the threat posed by Islamist terrorism – especially the al Qaeda network, its affiliates, and its ideology.
As we mentioned in chapter 2, Usama Bin Ladin and other Islamist terrorist leaders draw on a long tradition of extreme intolerance within one stream of Islam (a minority tradition), from at least Ibn Taimiyyah, through the founders of Wahhabism, through the Muslim Brotherhood, to Sayyid Qutb. That stream is motivated by religion and does not distinguish politics from religion, thus distorting both. It is further fed by grievances stressed by Bin Ladin and widely felt throughout the Muslim world-against the U.S. military presence in the Middle East, policies perceived as anti-Arab and anti-Muslim, and support of Israel. Bin Ladin and Islamist terrorists mean exactly what they say: to them America is the font of all evil, the ‘head of the snake,’ and it must be converted or destroyed.
It is not a position with which Americans can bargain or negotiate. With it there is no common ground – not even respect for life – on which to begin a dialogue. It can only be destroyed or utterly isolated.” – one of the most moving and powerful passages in the remarkably good 9/11 Commission Report. It bears a great deal of similarity to the argument I made three years ago, in “This Is A Religious War.”
KERRYPALOOZAH: Three new pieces on the Kerry campaign are now posted. Here’s my TNR fisking of Kerry’s speech introducing Edwards. Here’s my worry about Kerry’s gay politics, from the recent Advocate. Here’s my latest Sunday Times column on the conservative appeal of Kerry, given the radicalism and recklessness of the past three and a half years. Lastly, here’s my Time column on Bush’s exploitation of marriage to shore up his base. Enjoy. Or not, as the case may be.
The Dish 