Newark Execution Murders

[kandrathe]

First off, you did go to war in Afghanistan, and still are at war there.

Second, if this was the strategy, it ain't working....

And we are still in Japan, Germany, Balkans, and South Korea. So, what? The Afghan force is mostly special forces aiding the national Afghan army. It's a very different force from Iraq, which has become some of that, but mostly a police and training force. I could bicker with each of your counter points, but I'll leave that for now. Suffice it to say that we disagree and have different viewpoints. I am saying that if the externally fueled jihadists from the Islamic world were added to the Afghan problem, we'd be in the same war that the USSR was in which built the likes of OBL. That was the point.

So, the strategy may well be that it is very good to engage the front on Islamic extremism broadly, from within other like minded nations that seek to maintain their existing political hegemony, rather than succumb to radical theocracy. For those failed states, or those who succumbed... Well, I think this is the crux of "You are either with us, or against us." Which politically I read as saying, you are either supporting the forces of radical Islam or you are helping us to fight it. After 911, we declared war on Islamic extremism wherever it exists, not with any particular nation. I guess there is a middle ground though, which is reserved for the fence sitters. We could argue about that last group, which are either in fearful political jeopardy, or trying to ignore the problem hoping it is a passing fad. Personally, I rather think radical Islam has become a popular ideological movement in some nations, much like the hippies of the 60's.