U.S. News & World Report has a fascinating article written by Julian E. Barnes about General John Abizaid's views on the war against terrorism. As the Commander, U.S. Central Command General Abizaid is responsible for the war effort from Somalia to Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Abizaid believes that the radical Islamists must be confronted:
"What we can't allow to happen is guys like Abu Musab Zarqawi to get started," Abizaid told Benoit and the soldiers of the 1-141 Field Artillery. "It's the same way that we turned our back when Hitler was getting going and Lenin was getting going. You just cannot turn your back on these types of people. You have to stand up and fight."
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America has a chance to confront and stop an Islamic extremist movement akin to fascism or communism in its early stages, the general believes, before it metastasizes and dominates a significant chunk of the world.
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We didn't have the guts to get out in front of the fascists or the Bolsheviks. This time we have to get in front. This time we have a chance. If we don't fight this fight here, we will fight it at home.
General Abizaid argues the military must focus on the followers of the extremist Islamic fascism preached by Zarqawi or al Qaeda.
"There are all kinds of complexities," the general says. "But . . . the point is, there is a main enemy in the theater, and it is al Qaeda-inspired, [with an] ideological desire to dominate the region."
[. . .]
"Al Anbar province is the place where we can demonstrate that the insurgency can be defeated," Abizaid says, "that it can be defeated everywhere."
This explains the importance of Operation River Blitz.
General Abizaid agrees that over time extremists will be beaten back through the spread of democratic reforms and the Iraqi elections may represent a strategic turning point:
"I think what we have to be wary of is trying to impose an American solution on a part of the world that may not necessarily be ready for an American solution," he says. But, he adds, even countries like Saudi Arabia are beginning to change: "While a lot of people say you will never get reform in Saudi Arabia, they fully recognize they need to have reform. But it needs to be reform on their terms within their cultural . . . limits."
This is a hard concept to grasp. Many of us expected to see a Jeffersonian democracy in Afghanistan and Iraq. That was unrealistic.
Recognizing that it is ultimately up to the Iraqis to defeat the insurgency, the Associated Press reports the Marines display a sign quoting Lawrence of Arabia:
"Better the Arabs do it tolerably than you do it perfectly," it reads in part. "It is their war, and you are to help them, not to win it for them . . . . "
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