Know Our Enemies

Today's Tom Friedman column is pretty much right on the money. He begins by laying it on the line in terms of the level of depravity that has been exhibited by the terrorists in Iraq:

Just stop for one second and contemplate what happened: A suicide bomber, driving an ambulance loaded with explosives, crashed into the Red Cross office and blew himself up on the first day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. This suicide bomber was not restrained by either the sanctity of the Muslim holy day or the sanctity of the Red Cross. All civilizational norms were tossed aside. This is very unnerving. Because the message from these terrorists is: "There are no limits. We have created our own moral universe, where anything we do against Americans or Iraqis who cooperate with them is O.K."

That's pretty much what I've been saying all along. These terrorists know no limits. And that is why we cannot allow them the slightest chance to get their hands on WMD; if they get an atomic weapon, they will use it against us as sure as the sun sets in the west.

Friedman takes the Europeans and the Left to task for fantasizing that they are witnessing a popular Iraqi uprising:

There is this notion being peddled by Europeans, the Arab press and the antiwar left that "Iraq" is just Arabic for Vietnam, and we should expect these kinds of attacks from Iraqis wanting to "liberate" their country from "U.S. occupation." These attackers are the Iraqi Vietcong.

Hogwash. The people who mounted the attacks on the Red Cross are not the Iraqi Vietcong. They are the Iraqi Khmer Rouge — a murderous band of Saddam loyalists and Al Qaeda nihilists, who are not killing us so Iraqis can rule themselves. They are killing us so they can rule Iraqis.

Have you noticed that these bombers never say what their political agenda is or whom they represent? They don't want Iraqis to know who they really are. A vast majority of Iraqis would reject them, because these bombers either want to restore Baathism or install bin Ladenism.

Read the whole thing. Friedman has a warning for the Bush administration which SWLiP thinks is well taken.

In the meantime, contemplate the nature of our enemies; they know no moral boundaries, and because nothing matters to them more than our destruction they will never give up. The only way we can possibly defeat such depravity is to establish a decent, prosperous, civic society where ruthlessness and tyranny once stood.

Comments

[Dennis Moser]

Less a comment on the excellent posting, but more a question:

The image in the uppermost left hand corner of the screen: the Nike Samothrace in the Louvre?

[Brant]

Dennis:

You win the prize!

SWLiP

P.S. Just as soon as we figure out what the prize is, we'll let you know.