August 07, 2006

There has been much speculation recently about Rush Limbaugh's statement that the war on terrorism constitutes world war three. I agree with Rush. The definition of a world war is a war that covers the entire globe. It appears obvious that the war on terror has accomplished that minimum requirement.

Terrorism is defined as any action designed to strike terror into the hearts of the victims. In that respect, our enemy has accomplished their goal. America has been experiencing the results of this since September 11, 2001 and much of the rest of the civilized, free world has been experiencing it for many years before those terror attacks. Does this mean our enemy is winning this war? I do not believe so. Despite all the mistakes and setbacks, all the evidence is supporting the fact that America's retaliatory efforts at home and in the middle-east have been successful in fractionating and disabling Al Qaeda's ability to directly supervise and organize attacks. Splinter cells have been isolated and now act more or less on their own and terror attacks are growing less and less coordinated. This can play to our advantage in the years to come but it will not eliminate the threat.

According to an article by James Fallows titled We Win, in the September, 2006 issue of The Atlantic, The greatest threat to American civilization lies not in the threat of terrorism, but rather, in America's reaction to the threat. Mr. Fallows compares what is happening now in America to the anarchist terror attack that killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife at the beginning of the 20th century. "The reaction they (the anarchist terrorists) provoked resulted in the deaths of millions of people and the destruction of a civilization."

This is the greatest power that our enemy has over us. Their ability to provoke us to over react and over spend until our economies are broke and bleeding. If we want to win this war against freedom we must work hard not to allow ourselves to be terrorized. Caution is acceptable. Training and preparation is acceptable. Terror and panic is not. We need to redouble, maintain and support the efforts of our allies to combat terrorism when they strike out as Israel has done by attacking Hezbollah strongholds in southern Lebanon but we must avoid allowing our enemy to manipulate and control us.

Those are my opinions, for what they are worth. Do you agree, or disagree?


-Michael Jaquish