Emboldening the terrorists
President Bush and the Republicans, worried about likely election losses in the November mid-terms, have revived this notion that Democrat desires – and according to polls, the desires of a wide majority of Americans – to pull out of Iraq and refocus the war on terror in more effective campaigns against specific cells like the hunt for Osama bin Laden, would somehow “embolden the terrorists”.
As un-American as it sounds to label the opposition to your ideas as unpatriotic, un-American, or terrorist-friendly, I think there is a more serious problem with this line of thought.
Terrorists are irrational fanatics who hate Western culture, believe we conspire to dominate the world, and want to impose their cultural and social norms on others. And they particularly despise Israel and its allies. If we do nothing but keep Western culture the way it is, we are emboldening the terrorists to continue their wave of attacks.
By merely existing, we embolden the terrorists.
Whether we get bogged down providing security for the people of Iraq against a threat we helped create, just by being who we are, the terrorists will continue to fight us and want to undermine us and our way of life.
By refusing to change, President Bush emboldens the terrorists. By changing Presidential authority to give him more power, he weakens some liberties, and emboldens the terrorists.
Basically, by doing anything short of a suicide run in the misguided name of Islam, we embolden the terrorists.
So the Republicans really should drop that silly line of attack. It doesn’t work because it implies the terrorists are rational but reactionary people on the world stage. They aren’t. They’re irrational – that’s why they’re terrorists!
