The war on Islamic fascism is an interconnected, global affair, like everything else these days. The war in Afghanistan is being waged by Al Qaeda and the Taliban from their secure strongholds in Pakistan. Afghanistan cannot be separated from Pakistan. Until the Islamic fascist threat to Pakistan is somehow resolved, Afghanistan will be at war. In the same way, the war in Iraq will not be won until Iran and Syria are made to cease importing money, weapons, and personnel. The worldwide indoctrination of young Muslims into the Wahhabi, Salafist, Islamic fascist ideology will not cease until Saudi Arabia stops funding mosques and madrassas all over the world.
The idea that Iraq exists in a vacuum and is something that we can just withdraw from, is childishly simplistic. North Korea has supplied Iran with missile technology. Pakistan has, in the past, supplied Iran and others with nuclear bomb technology. France, Germany, Austria, and Russia have all supplied Iran with military technology of various sorts. Hezbollah, Hamas, and Fatah all receive aid from iran and the Arabs, not to mention Europe and even the United States.
There is no short-term, easy way out of this. There must be a Grand Strategy that sees Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Europe, Russia, India, Indonesia, Thailand, and more as pieces of the grand puzzle which is, in George W. Bush’s words, “…the great ideological struggle of the 21st century — and it is the calling of our generation. All civilized nations are bound together in this struggle between moderation and extremism.”.
“All of the grand strategy has to be to organize and arouse every element on the planet that wants to be prosperous, safe and free, and to gradually crowd out every element that is determined to impose dictatorship. . . . And that means we’ve gotta think much more aggressively . . .
“For example, we should be talking about women’s rights. I mean, women’s rights is the easiest, cleanest single fight worldwide in taking on [the most radical forms of Islam]. . . .
“The tragedy of the current American system is we won in 23 days [in Iraq], and then we threw away victory . . . We don’t have a large enough strategy. . . .
“THE last time we tried liberal weakness in the Mideast was Jimmy Carter. And nobody wants to talk about what a disaster this was. It was chaotic. You had an American ambassador killed in Afghanistan, an American embassy burned in Pakistan, a 444-day hostage crisis in Iran, we had gasoline rationed in the U.S. . . . People have forgotten what a total disaster this was . . .
“We tried weakness in the Middle East. Liberalism had a shot at this. And [yet] we’re not prepared to get up and say to Teddy Kennedy, “You guys did this before, I mean, do you really want to go back and do it again?
We’ve got to start with that notion – you had better think through a grand strategy, and you had better be prepared to do what it takes.”