Kill The Jihadists First

On the day that Benazir Bhutto was murdered, Andrew McCarthy wrote an article for National Review Online entitled, "Benazir Bhutto - Killed by the real Pakistan." McCarthy puts forward that the Islamic terrorists are popular amongst the people of the region, and that the only way that democracy will be able to achieve a foothold in Muslim nations is if we kill the jihadists first.

The transformation from Islamic society to true democracy is a long-term project. It would take decades if it can happen at all. Meanwhile, our obsessive insistence on popular referenda is naturally strengthening — and legitimizing — the people who are popular: the jihadists. Popular elections have not reformed Hamas in Gaza or Hezbollah in Lebanon. Neither will they reform a place where Osama bin Laden wins popular opinion polls and where the would-be reformers are bombed and shot at until they die.

We don’t have the political will to fight the war on terror every place where jihadists work feverishly to kill Americans. And, given the refusal of the richest, most spendthrift government in American history to grow our military to an appropriate war footing, we may not have the resources to do it.

But we should at least stop fooling ourselves. Jihadists are not going to be wished away, rule-of-lawed into submission, or democratized out of existence. If you really want democracy and the rule of law in places like Pakistan, you need to kill the jihadists first. Or they’ll kill you, just like, today, they killed Benazir Bhutto.

The bad guys are popular in the Middle East, the U.S. lacks the political will to fight the terrorists worldwide, the U.S. military is not being expanded to reflect the size of the current conflict, and far too many think we can get rid of the Muslim terrorists simply through the rule of law. Well said, Mr. McCarthy.

Read the whole thing.

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