When resolve wanes

Linda Chavez writes, "We are just [one week] away from the fifth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Yet we have quickly forgotten the lessons of that terrible day. We understood then that a group of Islamic fanatics had declared war on the United States and that our only option was to defeat them.

"Barely five years later, we seem to have lost our resolve. But our enemies haven't lost theirs, as the interrupted plot to blow up U.S.-bound airplanes in Great Britain shows all too well. So what are the chances we will ultimately prevail?

"First, it's important we understand who the enemy is and why he has targeted us. We are not fighting a war on terror, despite the nearly universal shorthand most of us have adopted. The terrorists who flew airplanes into American buildings, blew up hotels and nightclubs killing Western tourists in Bali and Kenya, bombed trains in Spain and England, and sent missiles and suicide bombers into Israel are fighting a religious war.

"In their view, we are infidels who must be converted or killed. There is no room in their ideology for peaceful co-existence or detente. They are willing to sacrifice their lives -- and, most importantly, their children's lives -- to kill as many of us as possible."

Ms. Chavez is correct when she states that we seem to have lost our resolve, while our enemy have not lost theirs (a side note, here - while she uses the plural, I am using the singular because it doesn't matter what country, or which group, an Islamofascist 'belongs' to - they are an Islamofascist, period - hence the use of the singular). She is also correct in stating that they consider us to be infidels, who must be converted to Islam, or be killed (another side note, here - why do they use a Latin word to describe people who do not follow the tenets of Islam?), and that there is no room in their perverted world view for détente or accommodation.

Ms. Chavez continues, "We have never faced an enemy like this before. Even the Soviet Union at its most ruthless was not as pernicious a threat. The Soviets wanted territory and power, but they always acted rationally. Mutual Assured Destruction worked as an effective nuclear deterrent because the Soviets would never have sacrificed their own lives just to kill us. Imagine how differently the Cold War would have turned out if the Soviets were willing to sacrifice Moscow in order to obliterate New York.

"But we know the Islamists are perfectly willing to pile up body after body of fellow Muslims so long as they can maximize the deaths of Christians and Jews. The difference is the Soviets wanted their reward here on Earth, while Islamic extremists don't expect theirs until they die."

We have to know our enemy. The main difference between the old Soviet Union, and the Islamofascists, is that the people of the Soviet Union placed a certain value on life, even if it was ostensibly only on theirs, while the Islamofascists only place value on death, and to them, it doesn't matter who dies, as long as they take as many of us out as they can.

As the anniversary of 9/11 draws ever nearer, and as we remember what was done, and those who were killed, we must resolve to be resolved to see this thing through to the bitter end. This war against Islamofascism must be won at all costs, for if we lose this war, we will have lost everything!

I, for one, am resolved to do my part however small it may be, to see this through.

Are you?