War in Iraq teaches Muslims a lesson about themselves

War in Iraq teaches Muslims
a lesson about themselves

EDITOR:

While I realize it is fashionable for rank-and-file Democrats and their liberal puppeteers to view President Bush as some brainless frat-boy, I would like to point out where President Bush has shown extreme wisdom and insight — namely, the War on Terror.

We may be the victims of Islamic terrorism, but we are not the cause of it. The cause is in Islam, which means that only Islam can solve it. We cannot bomb it away. We cannot wish it away. We cannot bribe it away. And we cannot reason it away. America and the West have no sway with these terrorists, their financiers, or their cheerleaders.

But before Muslims can solve their problem, they must realize that they have a problem. Until Iraq, most Muslims viewed Islamic terror as something that other Muslims did to infidels. Since they were not infidels, why should they care? In fact, the mayhem heaped upon the West gave them a sense of power and joy. When the World Trade Center collapsed, Muslims danced in the streets.

Bush understood that if only the West suffered the barbaric assault of these zealots, the Islamic world would never confront the cancer that festered within it. The only way to wake up the Muslim world was to bring the fight to it. Thus, Muslims could get a taste of what they so blithely celebrated after 9/11. But where?

Afghanistan was the obvious choice, but Afghanistan had no real value to the Islamic world. True, it was Muslim, but it was a backwater of no Islamic significance. Yet, President Bush would have to go there because Osama bin Laden was there. But the long-term solution to the problem was and is not in Afghanistan.

The real solution was elsewhere – in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, or Iran. However, Saudi Arabia was out of the question. While they were secretly promoting and financing radical Islamists, they were not so outwardly belligerent as to warrant an invasion. Iran was also spared, most likely, because they are a non-Arab, Shiite nation, and al-Qaida is a product of Sunni radicalism. Iraq was the logical choice. They were Sunni, outwardly supportive of Islamic radicals, locked in a nuclear arms race with Iran, belligerent toward their neighbors, a center of Islamic culture, and, as President Bush erroneously believed, ready for democracy.

So what went wrong? Apart from the fact that one cannot impose democracy on a violent nation, I would suggest — nothing. America has taken the fight to the Islamic world. By shifting the battlefield from New York to Baghdad, Muslims have begun to suffer the extreme views and actions of their brethren. When our buildings were falling down, they danced in the streets. Now that their buildings are exploding, they have begun the slow process of introspection. They are beginning to realize that Islamic terrorism is not just for the West. The West is simply the first target in its sights.

How long will this introspection take? I don’t know. However, if they do not come to grips with the violence of their own beliefs that violence will spill out of the Middle East and across the world.

Democracy in Iraq may have been a “bridge too far.” However, given time, a peaceful Islam, compatible with a civilized world may still be achievable. Only the Muslim world can create that new Islam. President Bush has provided them the incentive and the opportunity. Will the American people be as wise as President Bush and give them the time?

THOMAS MASKELL

Poland

Control costs, save money

EDITOR:

Hooray for Congressman Ryan. He got the federal government to give another couple million dollars of our tax money to area hospitals.

Why not do something to control cost instead of throwing more money at the health care crisis? Did he not read the letter to the editor last week about the man with the $2,000 broken toe?

DON JOHNSON

Liberty