In a recent audiotaped
message, Osama bin Laden threatened the U.S. and Western civilization
with monumental acts of terror, already planned and soon to be
executed. He also offered a truce to the U.S. if we evacuate our
troops from both Afghanistan and Iraq.
Both of
those countries have democratically elected governments formed
after UN-monitored elections that were declared essentially free
from fraud and intimidation. Indeed, whatever intimidation was
present was from the Taliban in Afghanistan and the insurrectionists
in Iraq.
If they
wish, Iraq and Afghanistan can order U.S. and all foreign forces
out of their countries at any time under the UN resolutions authorizing
the U.S. presence in both of those countries. The U.S. and coalition
forces have agreed to comply with such resolutions. However, both
countries have urged the U.S. and the coalition forces to remain
and provide the security they desperately need and want.
Osama bin
Laden knows this, of course. But he's hoping to obtain through
intimidation what he could not obtain politically or on the battlefield.
The big question is this: why is bin Laden offering a truce? Throughout
the history of warfare, those who seek a truce are generally losing.
They either want to minimize their losses or want a chance to
regroup and strengthen their forces.
Here in
the U.S., some who oppose our presence in Iraq and Afghanistan
will demand that we agree to the truce. We may soon see banners
in street demonstrations demanding that we accept bin Laden’s
offer. At the height of the Cold War, there were defeatists in
the U.S. and Europe who demanded that the democratic governments
submit to the demands of the U.S.S.R. Their cry for NATO’s
compliance with Soviet demands was summed up in the statement,
“better red than dead.”
Bin Laden’s
number one operative, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has chillingly summed
up the ultimate objective of al-Qaeda and other Islamic terrorists
leading the war on Western civilization. He recently inveighed,
“I vow by the One who raised the seven layers to Heaven
(i.e. Allah) and who has beheaded tyrants that the leader of America
has been thoroughly humiliated. Our heroes have defended this
place. They have entered legend. Killing the infidels [Christians,
Jews, Hindus, etc.] is our religion, slaughtering them is our
religion, until they convert to Islam or pay us tribute.”
Most of
us prefer Western civilization and democracy to Islamic dictatorship.
We do not wish either to convert to Islam or pay tribute to Islamofascists.
One observer, Andrew McCarthy, former U.S. attorney who prosecuted
the blind sheikh terrorist Omar Abdel Rahman, told The New
York Sun, “There is, regrettably a fifth column in
this country.” McCarthy, now a senior fellow at the Foundation
for the Defense of Democracies was, I believe, implicitly referring
to those who would accept the truce in lieu of continuing to wage
a lengthy war entailing deaths and injuries in order to protect
our values.
Those so-called
fifth columnists seek to sap our military and economic strength
to make us unable to continue the fight against terrorists and
insurrectionists in Iraq and Afghanistan. They seek to demean
and weaken the President, not simply to oppose him politically.
Now, the government of Iran, a major sponsor of terrorists worldwide,
is threatening the Western world with its nuclear arms program.
Both Senator John McCain and French President Jacques Chirac have
said that in defense of their respective countries from state-sponsored
major terrorist attacks, they will consider responding with nuclear
weapons.
President
Chirac recently said, “The leaders of states who would use
terrorist means against us, as well as those who would consider
using in one way or another weapons of mass destruction, must
understand that they would lay themselves open to a firm and adapted
response on our part…this response could be a conventional
one. It could also be of a different kind.” Senator John
McCain said on "Face the Nation, "There is only one
thing worse than the United States exercising a military option.
That is a nuclear-armed Iran."
Fortunately,
the democratic forces in Europe, as for example, Germany under
new Chancellor Angela Merkel, France and Great Britain, seem to
be waking up as they coordinate efforts to deal with the threats
by Iran. The United Kingdom, to its credit, was already standing
side by side with the U.S. Karl Rove, White House Republican operative,
whom I do not support because of his domestic agenda, is presciently
correct in urging the Republicans to make this war of civilizations
the issue in the Congressional elections of 2006.
Democrats
can win control of Congress by actively opposing the Islamic terrorists
and their state sponsors. They can win by basing their campaigns
on national issues, e.g., tax reform, national health insurance,
protection of Social Security, financing education, protecting
the environment and a host of other issues. However, if the Democrats
follow leaders such as Ted Kennedy, Al Gore, Howard Dean, Richard
Durbin and other pied pipers, they will go down to another defeat.
Ed
Koch is the former Mayor of New York City.
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