TERRORISM

Gordon Brown has replaced Tony Blair as prime minister of Great Britain. He is being lauded for his handling of their recent 'car bomb' crisis. He is less abrasive than Blair. He does not use the phrase 'war on terror'. He does not refer to 'Islamic' or 'Muslim' terrorists. His rhetoric is calming and good for the country.


That's just fine. I don't believe in the phrase 'war on terror' either. We should be calling it the 'war on radical Islamic terrorism'. It is what it is. There aren't groups of Episcopalians or Baptists attacking the free world. Without exception, they are adherents of Islam. Should we have attacked Iraq? Sure! Its dead center in the middle of the Muslim world. It was ruled by a corrupt dictator who committed genocide on his own people and was a threat to his neighbors. How long should we stay there? Fifty or sixty years would be a good start. We've been in Germany since the end of the Second World War - that's sixty-two years. We've been in Korea since the end of the Korean War - that's fifty-four years. A US military presence in that location would better serve us now than either of those locations.

I wish they would prove me wrong.