CENTRAL VIEW for Monday, October 18, 2004

Winning the War on Terror: Sooner or Later?

In recent weeks, this space has been used to proclaim: Yes, we are winning the War on Terror. And, we are winning, in part, because of the resolve America and Great Britain have displayed since 9/11 and because of the inherent defects in the cultural, social and economic systems the Islamo-fascists seek to impose upon Western Civilization.

But what of the future? What can we expect to experience in both the short- and the long-term?

The short term depends on the outcome of the current presidential election and control of the Congress. If President Bush is reelected and his party retains a majority in both Houses, we will continue to see a vigorous campaign to engage the terrorists at all levels with the aim of separating them from their state sponsors (both overt and covert). We will continue to engage them abroad rather than in our homeland.

If John Kerry is elected, the short-term will see less use of the forces and resources of the current Coalition of the Willing and, instead, an attempt to induce France, Germany, Russia plus mighty Belgium and Luxembourg (the only European nations outside the Coalition of the Willing) to play a larger role in opposing the Islamo-fascists.

Both Islamo-fascists leaders: Osama bin Laden and Abu Musad al Zarqawi have made it abundantly clear that they favor John Kerry because the “Kerry Plan” will give them the breathing space they so desperately need.

But what about the long-term? Over the span of 30 years, we can expect that the kind of Islamic New World Order proposed by the Islamo-fascists will not be able to convert or be able to force enough people to adopt the way of life it portends. They offer a repressive theocratic model that might have been well-suited to the Arab Caliphate of the 14th Century but is totally inadequate to succeed in the post-modern world of the 21st Century.

So, the question our voters face on November 2d is: Do we want an all-out effort over the relatively short term to defeat the Islamo-fascists or do we want to conduct a holding-action strategy with the view that the inherent defects in the Islamo-fascist New World Order will, eventually, cause it to fall of its own weight?

Obviously, the members of Saddam Hussein’s former Coalition of the Bribed (France, Germany, Russia and some senior U.N. officials) prefer the latter approach. But the French, who have a history of ostrich-like behavior, would be better served if the Coalition of the Willing would, once again, save their bacon by a relatively quick defeat of the Islamo-fascists.

Because France allowed the Muslims from its former North African colonies to take up residence in Metropolitan France, she now has a huge, growing (and voting) Muslim population. In fact, the reason France so adamantly opposes the entry of Turkey into the European Union is because France and all of central Europe would soon see a flood of Muslim Turkish immigrants who, under the rules of the E.U., could not be turned away as they were at the Battle of Vienna in 1529.

Ironically, while the Islamo-fascists have failed in their central aim of coming to power in one or more of the Arab nations of the Middle East, France would be the low-hanging fruit for them to pluck.

One can imagine an Islamo-fascist government of France (the French are used to being occupied by fascists) dragging a deposed Jacques Chirac out of the Bastille for a public beheading as punishment for his helping Saddam steal the Oil for Food money from the children of Iraq. Say what you want about Islamic justice, but it is swift.

So, there you have it, gentle readers. You may opt for a relatively short war that we win by virtue of our own strength. Or, you may opt for a decades-long war that we win because of the inevitable failure of the Islamo-fascist system.

William Hamilton, a syndicated columnist, a featured commentator for USA Today and self-described “recovering lawyer and philosopher,” is the co-author of The Grand Conspiracy and The Panama Conspiracy – two thrillers about terrorism directed against the United States.

©2004. William Hamilton.

Dr. Hamilton can be contacted at:

Email: william@central-view.com