Barbarians At The Gate
By Randall Nunn (10/22/03)
Last Sunday, terrorists in Baghdad set off a car bomb near the Hotel Baghdad, killing 10 people and causing some destruction, although no major structural damage. As usual, the liberal media missed the real story and used the attack as simply another opportunity to criticize the Bush administration for its alleged inability to establish a safe and secure environment in Iraq.
If you analyze this attack, its purpose and its result, it contains a far different message. The real message is that the terrorists have said, in effect, "We are cowards, we are weak, we are incompetent, and we are desperate."
The Baghdad Hotel attack was a failure in that the car containing the bomb did not make it to its intended detonation point at the target, thus resulting in a far less damaging and lethal attack than would have occurred if the attack had been carried out successfully. The reason it did not succeed was due to the security perimeter set up around the hotel and the quick reaction of the Iraqi security personnel who fired on the automobile before it got to the front of the hotel. The car was diverted and the incompetent suicide bomber forced to set off the bomb where its horrific effect was greatly reduced. If some master terrorist were grading this effort, it would have merited a "C-" or "D", at best.
The Baghdad Hotel car bomb attack is just another instance of the terrorists attacking innocent people and non-combatants rather than military targets. They lack the courage to confront America's military personnel in a direct action and they show radical Islam for what it is--a cowardly, weak and ineffectual movement mired in the outdated philosophy of religious fanaticism that is trying to keep freedom and liberty at bay by forcibly imposing their backward beliefs on a terrorized and intimidated citizenry. There is nothing noble, good or decent about either their beliefs, values or goals. They are venomous, evil and ignorant people. History will look at them with repugnance and loathing. They are infecting Islam with a corrosive disease that will gradually weaken it in the eyes of the rest of the world unless free and thinking Muslims stand up against these modern-day barbarians. All that is necessary for radical Islam to succeed in the countries where it has a foothold is for decent, freedom-seeking people to do nothing to oppose it. Unfortunately, that seems to be happening in many areas of the world where passive populations look for government or some outside power to rid them of these evil fanatics. When the history of this period is written will people in those countries take pride in being chronicled as poor, backward countries dominated by mullahs, theocrats and terrorists? Is there anything noble about violent men whose every effort is to suppress freedom and a desire for a better life so that they might live in power and relative wealth? The message of the mullahs and terrorist leaders to their ignorant followers is that the masses must live in squalor, fear and serfdom.
These attacks in Iraq are clearly acts of desperation by the forces of reaction who have no goal other than preventing modern ways of life from triumphing over their pernicious philosophy that is unable to persuade free men except by violence. The terrorists are backward and incapable of confronting American ideas with any intellectual force at all. What is amazing is that the liberal press does not focus on the absolute emptiness of their movement and the lack of any fundamental political or moral philosophy. Instead, the media focuses on the effects of their terror in an effort to convince Americans that we are in a "quagmire" in Iraq and that we cannot defeat radical Islam with our military power. What the media does not see is that the power of the American ideals of freedom, liberty and representative government will defeat terrorists who have no philosophical underpinnings whatsoever. These relics of medieval times are desperate people and they are losing in Iraq--slowly but surely. And the beauty of the U.S. campaign in Iraq is that the terrorists are flocking to the battleground much like poisonous toxins to the site of an infection. Our soldiers are fighting this scourge in a country where they can more effectively deal with terrorists with minimal loss of American lives and minimal disruption to our economy and daily lives. With the number of fedayeen and Saddam loyalists who shed their uniforms and chose to use terrorism in an attempt to cleanse their inability to confront Americans in battle, it is surprising that they have not been more effective and deadly than they have been thus far. If the American media were to accurately portray this battle, our soldiers could at least be fortified with the knowledge that the majority of their fellow citizens are understanding, grateful and even supportive.
The terrorist enemy is as evil as anything conceived by Hitler or communist tyrannies. It is sad that any American should die at the hands of such sub-human thugs. It would be sadder still if the country did not realize the importance of this conflict and the fact that we are in a battle to preserve our civilization. Yes, the barbarians are at the gates, but the gates are in Iraq. Better there than here.
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