Thursday, September 23, 2004

Reminder: The Whole World is fighting Terror

An update tomy post earlier this month about Russia's reaction to the Beslan massacre:
This article (subsciption only) by Weekly Standard's Frederick W. Kagan. The most important points are quotes from Russians themselves.
First, a Russian Policeman:
In the United States, after September 11, there were not any more attacks. Here they have not done anything. We get kicked from all sides.

Second, Russian President Putin who "implicitly praised the U.S. response to 9/11 under Bush's leadership" by saying:
Events in other countries prove that terrorists meet the most effective rebuff where they confront not only the power of the state, but also an organized and united civil society.
...
We have to admit that we failed to recognize the complexity and danger of the processes going on in our country and the world as a whole.

Do we have anyone in America who is failing to "recognize the complexity and danger" of what's going on in our country?
It's John Kerry, who just today delivered a slap in the face to Iraqi PM Allawi by saying he contradicted himself and implying that the PM doesn't know what's going on in his own country [more on this later].

But Kagan connects this together and sums it up nicely:
[T]he events of recent weeks have shown clearly that the simplistic approaches and criticisms coming from the Kerry camp are far less likely to succeed than the more complex and sophisticated strategy the Bush administration has pursued. The right program is not, as Kerry says, to "internationalize" the coalition in Iraq, to be cautious and defensive in the use of our power, to ensure that we move in lock step with other states that, quite wrongly, do not feel themselves as threatened as we do. The right strategy is to attack the terrorists where they live and train, to pressure their sponsors to stop supporting them, to build up our defenses at home and abroad, and to be willing to fight to prevent attacks on our homeland. This is the essence of the Bush strategy in the war on terror, supported by the president's single-minded determination to protect Americans' security. It is the only strategy, as events have shown, that has any hope of success.