The Age of Holy Terror: September 11, 2001

This is not crime. This is war. One of the reasons there are terrorists out there capable and audacious enough to carry out the deadliest attack on the United States in its history is that, while they have declared war on us, we have in the past responded—with the exception of a few useless cruise missile attacks on empty tents in the desert—by issuing subpoenas.

Secretary of State Colin Powell’s first reaction to the day of infamy was to pledge to “bring those responsible to justice.” This is exactly wrong. Franklin Roosevelt did not respond to Pearl Harbor by pledging to bring the commander of Japanese naval aviation to justice. He pledged to bring Japan to its knees.

You bring criminals to justice; you rain destruction on combatants. This is a fundamental distinction that can no longer be avoided. The bombings of Sept 11, 2011 must mark a turning point. War was long ago declare on us. Until we declare war in return, we will have thousands of more innocent victims. known as the age of terrorism. Organized terror has shown that it can do:

We no longer have to search for a name for the post-Cold War era. It will henceforth be known as the age of terrorism. Organized terror has shown what it can do: execute the single greatest massacre in American history, shut down the greatest power on the globe and send its leader have a very specific air: s into underground shelters.  All this, without even resorting to chemical biological or nuclear weapons of mass destruction.

This is a formidable enemy. To dismiss it as a bunch of cowards perpetrating senseless acts of violence is complacent nonsense. People willing to kill thousands of innocents while they kill themselves are not cowards. They are deadly vicious warriors and need to be treated as such. Nor are their acts of violence senseless. They have a very specific aim: to avenged historical wrongs and to bring the great American satan to its knees. Nor is the enemy faceless or mysterious. We do not know for sure who gave the final order but we know what movement it comes from. Our delicate sensibilities have prevented us from pronouncing its name.

Its name is radical Islam. Not Islam as practiced peacefully by millions of faithful around the world. But by a specific fringe political movement, dedicated to imposing its fanatical ideology on its own society and destroying the society of its enemies, the greatest of which is the United States. . .

Read more in the Washington Post . . .

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