Jihadistan: A Clear and Present Danger

Jihadistan: A clear and present danger...

Thousands of events will recognize the third anniversary of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks on our nation by Islamist Jihadis. Most of these events are reflective -- appropriate vigils in schools and churches to remember 2,864 innocent non-combatant men, women and children -- our countrymen -- who were slaughtered on that Tuesday morning by 19 al-Qa'ida terrorists.

Amid the solemn vigils, the Leftmedia will highlight planned protests that deposing Saddam Hussein was wrong and that the liberation of Iraq will motivate more terrorism than it blocked.
Those protests are wrong -- dead wrong.

Eleven years ago, our homeland became the front line in our war with Jihadistan, that borderless nation of Islamofascists with global reach, inhabited by al-Qa'ida and other Islamist Jihadis targeting the U.S. Their first assault on U.S. soil -- Sheik Ramzi Yousef's bombing of the WTC's north tower, 26 February 1993, was the opening salvo in our asymmetric war with this insidious enemy. But that campaign wouldn't get under way in earnest until their second attack some eight years later, a far more sophisticated and deadly attack that used commercial airliners as missiles to destroy both WTC towers, in addition to scoring a direct hit on the Pentagon.

On that day, a brave group of passengers on UAL Flight 93 became the first Americans to confront al-Qa'ida Jihadis directly. "Let's roll," said a resolute Todd Beamer as he rallied his fellow Patriots to storm the cockpit and thwart a fourth attack -- likely on the Capitol -- at the cost of their own lives.

The events of 9/11 necessitated a national-security policy shift from containment to preemption -- the most significant policy change since WWII. On 11 September 2001, President Bush told the nation -- and the world, "We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them." Two weeks later, he said, "This war on terrorism will be fought on a number of fronts, in different ways. The front lines will look different from the wars of the past."

President Bush made clear that our campaign against terror defies any diplomatic resolution, and that Jihadistan can only be defeated in offensive, preemptive strikes.

Three weeks after the 9/11 attack, American Armed Forces, under the able leadership of their Commander in Chief, took the fight to the enemy, effectively moving the warfront with Jihadistan from U.S. soil to the heart of the Middle East -- Afghanistan and Iraq. It should be noted that American forces and our allies are not, first and foremost, fighting for Iraq's freedom. They are fighting for critical U.S. national-security interests and those of the free world, which was at great peril as long as Saddam remained in power. Most important, they are endeavoring to keep the battle on Jihadi turf, not ours.

In the last three years, other nations, from Indonesia to Kenya to Spain, have suffered severe blows at the blood-soaked hands of Jihadi terrorists. And this past weekend, we were reminded of the unfettered depravity of Islamist terrorism as nearly 400 Russians -- MOST OF THEM CHILDREN! -- were murdered in a Beslan school, bringing the toll to more than 500 Russian innocents killed by terrorists in the last two weeks. Inevitably, these most recent acts of barbarism bitterly evoked our own sense of loss after 9/11 -- the anguish on the faces of parents as they carried the still bodies of their children, and the blank stares of those learning that their loved ones were killed in simultaneous bombings of passenger jets.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, responding to the slaughter in Beslan, says his nation will now -- belatedly -- proceed with a policy of preemption.

On this, the third anniversary of 9/11, we note that the number of American Patriots in uniform who have died in the Iraqi theater passed the 1,000 mark -- predictably prompting political opportunists to launch frontal assaults on our policy in the region. Of course, such protests serve only to endanger our Armed Forces on that warfront by inviting additional strikes against them. Such protests belittle the ultimate sacrifice of those who stood in harm's way, and they imply that a policy of appeasement would end the murder of innocents.

Unfortunately, reality dictates that Jihadis are a relentless enemy who will not rest until that beacon of liberty, the United States, is laid waste. These are very dangerous times, when the state sponsors of Islamofascist groups like al-Qa'ida are close to obtaining (or have already obtained) enough highly enriched uranium to kill millions of Americans in U.S. urban centers.

Thus, the Bush administration's policy of preemption, as enforced by our Patriots in uniform, is an essential element in keeping nuclear terror from our homeland.

We hope and pray that this critical policy and its enforcers are not compromised, as they most assuredly would be, by a change of administrations in November.

According to The Patriot's well-placed military and intelligence sources, our ultimate objective in securing a free Iraq is to establish a forward-deployed presence in the Middle East -- a presence of personnel and equipment. We expect that the invitation to establish bases in Iraq will occur soon after a permanent democratically elected Iraqi government is established -- assuming George Bush is still in the White House.

This base objective is critical, given that it will provide us standing right in the heart of Jihadistan, and an ability to project force to protect our national interests in the region without having to ramp up via sea and airlift. Our sources indicate that our military presence in this region will consist primarily of assets transferred from Germany.

In the meantime, we hope our countrymen are not deceived into believing that Islamist terrorism is anything but a clear and present global danger -- one likely to remain so despite our best efforts in the foreseeable future.

In retrospect, American Patriots will observe a moment of silence at 0846 on 9/11, a solemn moment to contemplate the attack against our countrymen three years ago. Additionally, we will honor, as we do every day, the sacrifice of our Patriot Armed Forces, who have given the last full measure in defense of our liberty, and those who remain in harm's way.

In the words of Founding Patriot Samuel Adams, "Contemplate the mangled bodies of your countrymen, and then say, 'What should be the reward of such sacrifices?' Bid us and our posterity bow the knee, supplicate the friendship, and plough, and sow, and reap, to glut the avarice of the men who have let loose on us the dogs of war to riot in our blood and hunt us from the face of the earth? If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands, which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen!"


from
The Federalist