Anonymous (the author of Imperial Hubris) gives us this:

In order to make the decisions and allocate the resources needed to ensure U.S. security, Americans must understand the world as it is, not as we want — or worse yet, hope — it will be.

I have long experience analyzing and attacking Bin Laden and Islamists. I believe they are a growing threat to the United States — there is no greater threat — and that we are being defeated not because the evidence of the threat is unavailable but because we refuse to accept it at face value and without Americanizing the data. This must change, or our way of life will be unrecognizably altered.

To which James Joyner replies:

In war—and Anonymous and I agree that we’re in one—there are only two routes to victory: You can defeat the enemy’s hostile ability (by killing enough of his troops and/or destroying his resources) or overcome his hostile will (his desire to keep fighting). It seems to me that, given the asymmetric nature of the struggle, overcoming the enemy’s hostile ability is unachievable. Victory can come, therefore, only by overcoming his hostile will. And the only way that can happen is to wipe Wahhabism from the face of the earth.

After that, I'm perfectly fine with all getting together to sing Kum Ba Ya.

Grab that link to James' pad, and read the entire exchange.

Posted by: Attila at 03:12 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 249 words, total size 2 kb.

1 No one has done more to support the status quo, and therefore Wahabism, in Saudi Arabia than George W. Bush and his family.

Posted by: Adam at July 08, 2004 09:45 PM (tfidl)

2 A. This country has been far too supportive of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for too long, and that reaches back across both Democratic and Republican administrations. The reasons: 1) KSA is in a strategically important location; 2) it has lots of oil reserves, upon which our economy depends; 3) we have traditionally pursued a policy of "we don't have friends, we have interests" when it comes to the Middle East [with the exception of Israel, which we support for historical reasons]. B. KSA itself has pursued a weird policy with respect to Muslim extremists: they've fed the beast in order to keep it at bay. Lately, however, the House of Saud is in a position wherein it will have to start taking the extremists more seriously. It'll be interesting to see how they change in the next year or so. In the meantime, I'd like to see us conserve energy a bit more, develop alternative energy sources, and--yes--start drilling in ANWR.

Posted by: Attila Girl at July 09, 2004 11:10 PM (LcVoH)

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