Thread: Are We at War or Not?

Are We at War or Not?
Dr. Laina Farhat-Holzman

Whether our struggle with Militant Islam is a war or whether it requires international police action like that in our drug war is a question roiling the Presidential political debates. This issue has been hovering out there since the attacks on 9/11, and because there has not been another homeland attack since then, it has not been resolved.

We were attacked by al Qaeda overseas for at least four years before 9/11, and the consensus in American and European governing circles was that this was an international law enforcement issue. Attacks on our military barracks, two embassies in Africa, and a military ship in harbor in Aden were not enough to provoke us. Furthermore, even if we had been provoked, who could we attack? A gang of stateless Islamist criminals?

We have not fought a war on thugs recently. But we did have a couple of historic precedents. When Barbary pirates (Morocco, Algiers, Tunisia) attacked and threatened American shipping and took hostages in the Mediterranean from 1800-1805, President Jefferson had enough and cleaned them out. Trouble on our Mexican border in 1916-17 led to a military incursion in pursuit of the bandit Pancho Villa. (Remember “from the Halls of Montezuma to the Shores of Tripoli…â€

Originally Posted by jimpasz

Are We at War or Not?
Dr. Laina Farhat-Holzman

My reaction to all this is skeptical for several reasons: regarding nukes, the Islamists do not have the kind of infrastructures and high tech societies to sustain such a thing. The entire Muslim world is trapped in a quagmire of bad, backward governance and terrible educational systems. A high-tech weapon does not come from such a place unless it is a one-time fluke.

I disagree w/this point. There are Pakistanis RIGHT NOW who would just LOVE to hand over a nuclear device to Al Qaeda or Hezbollah or any of the other various islamic terrorist groups. Hell, Al Qaeda is HIDING OUT in Pakistan.

Isn't it dangerous to underestimate your enemies? Pakistan already has nukes and has disseminated the information on how to build nukes to ANY islamic theocracy that wants to know how.

Personally, I think it's only a matter of time before we have a islamic, nuclear terrorist incident.