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The Good Fight: Why Liberals---and Only Liberals---Can Win the War on Terror and Make America Great Again
 | The Good Fight: Why Liberals---and Only Liberals---Can Win the War on Terror and Make America Great Again Peter Beinart Date: 2006-06-01 — Book Rating: |
I am 100% behind the premise of this book. I truly believe that only liberals are capable of defeating the terrorist threat, and Beinart clearly explains why: Democrats are the only Party talking about the root causes of terrorism and the only Party capable of dealing with them so as to isolate the terrorists and then annihilate them.
Republicans will never win the war on terror because they do not know why it's happening. They refuse to consider that there is any reason for terrorists to attack the United States beyond the fact that they are evil. The problem, of course, is that terrorists are not born evil. These people have political and economic goals that have nothing to do with "hating our freedoms." Republicans will never defeat terrorism because they will not sacrifice their "moral clarity" for a complete understanding of the enemy.
And yes, we must understand our enemy. That's not just liberal gobbledy-gook; it's basic military strategy:
If you know yourself and you know your enemy, then in a thousand battles you'll win a thousand victories. - Sun Tzu
Back in 2004, when al-Qaeda endorsed President Bush for re-election, our enemy put it this way:
"Kerry will kill our nation while it sleeps because he and the Democrats have the cunning to embellish blasphemy and present it to the Arab and Muslim nation as civilization. Because of this we desire you (Bush) to be elected."
The basic problem with Republicans is that they do not believe in the power of American democracy and culture. Every anti-terrorist measure they've taken has in some way violated US tradition, American values, and even the Constitution. Invading a country that is not a clear threat to America is un-American; torture is un-American; spying on US citizens without a warrant is un-American; giving the President the power to make US citizens "disappear" is un-American. These actions fly in the face of American values and weaken the power of American ideals abroad.
Democrats believed so strongly in American values that they felt containment and the passage of time would defeat the Soviet Union. They were right. American values were stronger than Communist values and we won without having to invade the Soviet Union. The same principle is in play today. Republicans do not believe our culture is strong enough to stand up to Islamic fundamentalism. They do not believe American democracy and values are strong enough to entice Muslims away from terrorists like al-Qaeda -- and therefore we must fight a clash of civilizations. They are wrong.
We know that nothing could have created support for al-Qaeda the way that attacking Iraq did. The terrorists acknowledged that themselves in their endorsements of President Bush. It's time now for Democrats to "embellish blasphemy and present it to the Arab and Muslim nation as civilization" in order to "kill" the Islamic jihadist movement. Beinart's book makes it clear how that will happen.