Harry Reid Needs a Refresher Course on Terrorism

Last week Senate majority leader Harry Reid said that part of the war on terrorism being fought in Iraq was lost. It was lost unless of course the President started following Harry’s plan. And the sooner we follow Harry’s plan, the sooner we could achieve victory.

But Senator Reid’s plan calls for a nearly immediate surrender in Iraq, regardless of the conditions in Iraq and regardless of the fact that Al Qaeda is still operating there. So the sooner we quit the fight, the sooner we win?

Is that like telling the entire Husker football team, up by 14 in the 4th quarter against Oklahoma that the sooner they all walk off the field, the sooner they’ll win? Maybe I should be telling my children that the sooner they quit doing their homework, the sooner they’ll all turn into little Einstein geniuses. Better yet, why doesn’t Harry tell Hillary and Barack that the sooner they stop running for President, the sooner one of them will win the Presidency?

Those would all be plausible outcomes in the Harry Reid School of Logic. But, his logic isn’t tracking, nor is his timing.

His comments came as the UPI was reporting that “U.S. military officials say Baghdad and the rest of Iraq are getting better rather than worse. Sectarian murders have dropped. Civilian casualties and the number of attacks on civilians are down by approximately 50 percent in Baghdad. Across Iraq, civilian casualties are down by 24 percent with attacks against civilians dropping by about 17 percent countrywide.”

His comments came as the LA Times was reporting that some 200 Sunni tribal leaders were announcing “the formation of a national party to oppose insurgents like Al Qaeda and reengage with Iraq’s political process.”

His comments came as Max Boot was reporting on briefings from Multi-National Division-West in Iraq that attacks in the Anbar province were “at a two year low” and that tips to coalition forces “were soaring.”

So while only 60% of the additional troops have arrived, signs and trends for progress continue to emerge, and at worst General Petraeus says we’re having mixed success, Harry Reid was saying the war is lost.

If looking at the situation from Al Qaeda’s perspective, I’d say he was correct; the U.S. has lost, because politicians like Harry Reid have lost the will to fight and win. I’m sure that every Islamic terrorist in the world rejoiced at his comments. Their plan for success is working.

The intent of the terrorists has always been to make the fight difficult. They know, from our demonstrated actions and rhetoric that if a fight gets tough or confusing, we have a history of quitting.

Some of us have been trying to prove the terrorists wrong, but Harry Reid and friends are desperately trying to prove the terrorists right. His comments bring them one step closer to victory and their goal of establishing another country from which to spread their brand of Islam.

Maybe that important fact has been lost during the debate over Iraq. We need reminded of who we’re fighting and what their intent is.

Some have lost sight of the fact that we fight an enemy who sees weakness (like an unwillingness to fight) as something to exploit. Any demonstrated weakness only emboldens them to act with more violence, not less.

They don’t have an “American mindset” which sees compassion where weakness exists. They see brutality where weakness exists, and an opportunity to force a choice between conversion to their brand of Islam or death.

From their viewpoint, our only options are religious conversion or death. Negotiations, political solutions, compassion, tolerance, and compromise are not on the table; they are not options Al Qaeda will entertain.

For our part, looking inwardly to examine our national policies in the Middle East, trying desperately to find the faults in our national character, or simply blaming America first as reasons they hate us are all pointless ventures.

We can subject ourselves to the throes of self-loathing, but the fact is we are loathed by them because our society, our nation is not an extreme Islamic theocracy. Until the day we all convert to belief in an extremist version of Wahabiism and at the same time decide to implement the same type of theocracy the Taliban and Al Qaeda subjected Afghanistan to, we will be hated and attacked by them.

Many here in America also do not comprehend the depth of their intolerance and hatred for everyone else. One of the very few things we’ve experienced here that would resemble a similar hatred among one group for others, simply because they are different, and a willingness to turn that hatred into violence is the acts of the Ku Klux Klan.

Of course, September 11, 2001 can also be a pretty good reminder of their hatred, violence, and evil.

In the end, maybe Harry Reid needs refresher courses in history, what drives terrorists, what emboldens them, why they want us to lose and die, who we’re fighting, and how wars are won. But it probably wouldn’t matter, because he only seems concerned with how elections are won.