Bill's Notes

Outstanding article here.

Stage One of the jihad was to drive the infidels from the lands of Islam; Stage Two--to bring the war into the enemy camp, and the attacks of 9/11 were clearly intended to be the opening salvo of this stage. The response to 9/11, so completely out of accord with previous American practice, came as a shock, and it is noteworthy that there has been no successful attack on American soil since then. The U.S. actions in Afghanistan and in Iraq indicated that there had been a major change in the U.S., and that some revision of their assessment, and of the policies based on that assessment, was necessary.

More recent developments, and notably the public discourse inside the U.S., are persuading increasing numbers of Islamist radicals that their first assessment was correct after all, and that they need only to press a little harder to achieve final victory. It is not yet clear whether they are right or wrong in this view. If they are right, the consequences--both for Islam and for America--will be deep, wide and lasting.

Yep. We'll see.

One quibble: There's an implication that we are talking about weakness, when what we could be talking about denial. Some people don't believe there's a real terrorist threat, and if there is, we can fix it by adopting a better U.S. policy toward Muslim nations, and especially the Palestinians. I disagree (partially and with numerous qualifications), they disagree with me, and we talk about it and yadda yadda yadda. We're Americans. We never shut up. But if we were in a position of survival, I think we would have numerous options, including many that are not pleasant. Whether we would have the wherewithal to do it is an open question.