Within a short time of the bombings in London people started making the comparisons between what happened in the UK to the 911 terrorist attacks in the U.S. And in a very sad moment some of them did the same thing that other foolish people did, they blamed the victim.
They started making excuses for the terrorists, claiming that they had no other way to go, no recourse, no alternatives, they were forced to do this because of British/American policy. It is disgusting, just revolting that they would provide an excuse for this kind of brutality.
It is no different than saying that the rapist is innocent because the victim asked for it.
It is legitimate to question policy. It is valid to say that a government is engaging in folly and that they are pursuing a dangerous course of action, but it is wrong, shameful and irresponsible to suggest that terror like this is legitimate.
When I first began writing this post I had considered going into great detail about a number of things, but I just don't have it in me today. However, I still want to pursue a couple of things.
First, to address the title of this post I think that it is necessary to remember that in our era of instant gratification we have grown accustomed to quick solutions. This is not going to be a situation which allows for that. There is no quick fix here and people who think otherwise are mistaken.
We are fighting a war based upon competing ideologies. If you think that that the terrorists are not committed you are fooling yourself. If you think that they are cowardly or stupid you are fooling yourself.
Our adversaries are intelligent. They are patient, they are willing to wait and they have the faith of the believer. It allows them to kill, maim, murder and slaughter indiscriminately without fear of consequences. When you are fighting people like this you are facing a long, hard drawn out battle.
This is going to play out over a number of years, not months.
I don't have an ideal solution or anything profound, just this. In my opinion it will require a combination of force and diplomacy.
We are going to have to go in and kill people. I don't want to gloss over it with terms like eradicate or liquidate. We are going to have to kill people. And at the same time we are going to have to find a way to marginalize the hard core fighters so that we can remove or shrink their base of support or we are going to face a war of attrition.
That's all I have to say on this for now.
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