For those who argue that we had no business fighting on the Iraqi front in our war against Al Qaeda and terrorism, that our only front should have been Afghanistan, I ask that you consider the insidious tentacles of Al Qaeda... Was Afghanistan the only country harboring Al Qaeda operatives and leaders? Do you truly believe that Al Qaeda was not receiving safe quarter in other parts of the world? Can you honestly say that our fight stops with Bin Laden while knowing that he has trained other terrorists who will wreak havoc on civilized countries on a whim?
An article by our friend Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, "The Death of Shamil Basayev," makes clear that there are other horrors connected to Al Qaeda in other countries... monsters who have no qualms about using terrorist tactics in their quest for victory. Shamil Basayev was one of those monsters. Remember the Beslan school massacre in 2004 in Chechnya?
It doesn't take a specialist in world affairs or terrorism to see that, if Americans have the courage and the backbone, we will be fighting this war for a very long time on many fronts around the world. I won't be the least bit surprised to find the Chinese and the Russians, once our biggest enemies in the cold war, very closely allied with the current "Coalition of the Willing" in the coming years.
This is one war that no civilized country can afford to lose. God help us all if we do.
Comments