The Scariest Issue in the 2006 Election<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
J. Michael Sharman
 
 
As the day approaches to vote on November 7, 64% of surveyed voters say they oppose the war in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Iraq[1], and say they will be voting against the elected officials who have supported the war.
Here's a scary thought: There are 1.3 billion followers of Islam. Islamic terrorists live all around the world. If President Bush had not pointed the terrorists to Iraq as the battleground upon which they could fight their jihad, where do you think that battle would be taking place?
Do you remember five years ago in that period right after 9/11 when you and I and everyone else thought that additional and more frequent terrorist attacks on American soil were imminent?
They haven't happened yet, have they? We may have different, even better, ideas than Mr. Bush on how the post-Saddam era in Iraq could have been conducted, but it is pretty hard to argue with the fact that the war in Iraq has definitely worked as a magnet for the Islamic jihadists.
In May 1998, Osama bin Laden, in a very rare interview, told western journalist John Miller: "We believe that the worst thieves in the world today and the worst terrorists are the Americans. Nothing could stop you except perhaps retaliation in kind. We do not have to differentiate between military or civilian. As far as we are concerned, they are all targets..." [2]
            Militant hatred for Christians, Jews and America has not been preached only by bin Laden.
Australia's most senior Muslim cleric, Sheik Taj Aldin al-Hilali, has praised suicide bombers, and claimed that the September 11 attacks on New York were "God's work against oppressors".[3]
            The Kuwaiti Al-Qa'ida spokesman Suleiman Abu Gheith has said, "Why were millions of people astounded by what happened to America on September 11? Did the world think that anything else would happen? That something less than this would happen?!… America is the head of heresy in our modern world, and it leads an infidel democratic regime that is based upon separation of religion and state and on ruling the people by the people via legislating laws that contradict the way of Allah and permit what Allah has prohibited… America's standing with the Christians of the world against the Muslims has stripped the camouflage from its face. Much can be said about this regarding the Sudan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Kashmir, Macedonia, Bosnia, and other tragedies…We have the right to kill 4 million Americans - 2 million of them children - and to exile twice as many and wound and cripple hundreds of thousands."[4]
On October 24, 2006, an Islamist website posted a sermon of another Kuwaiti, Sheikh Hamed ibn 'Abdallah Al-'Ali, who said the goal of jihad is to "reestablish the Islamic Caliphate which will represent all Muslims around the world" and to rule by shari'a  or Islamic law.[5]
Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahiri is the man who is now thought to have become the head of al-Queda. His goal, says those who know him, has always been to "Get rid of those infidel governments and replace them with Islamic governments who will implement Islamic sharia," and "to prepare the Muslim mujahedeen to wage their awaited battle against the superpower that now has sole dominance over the globe, namely, the United States."[6]
That preparation is even occurring in a new video game, "Quest for Bush," released by the Global Islamic Media Front, to train people to kill President Bush with a rifle, shotgun or  grenade launcher, through various missions that include "Jihad Growing Up," "Americans' Hell" and "Bush Hunted Like a Rat."[7]
President Bush, in his September 20, 2001 address to Congress warned America that, "On September 11th, enemies of freedom committed an act of war against our country. …The terrorists' directive commands them to kill Christians and Jews, to kill all Americans and make no distinction among military and civilians, including women and children."[8]
President Bush did not begin the war against the terrorists. The Islamic jihadists were the ones who declared war and launched their attacks on U.S. soil against American civilians. Mr. Bush simply choose to respond to those attacks in Iraq rather than here. For that, he and the elected officials who supported his efforts should receive our votes of confidence and our very sincere thanks.
 
 
 
 
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[1] "Newsweek Poll conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International. Oct. 19-20, 2006" http://www.pollingreport.com/iraq.htm

[2] PBS Frontline: Hunting bin Laden, John Miller Interview, May 1998

[3] "Australian Muslim Cleric Blames Women for Rape" The Independent, 27 October 2006,
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/australasia/article1932715.ece

[4] "'Why We Fight America': Al-Qa'ida Spokesman Explains September 11 and Declares Intentions to Kill 4 Million Americans with Weapons of Mass Destruction", Middle East Media Research Institute, Report 338, June 12, 2002.

[5] "Hamed Al-'Ali's Holiday Address to Muslims", Middle East Media Research Institute,  Special Report Series No. 1334, Oct 24, 2006, http://memri.org/bin/latestnews.cgi?ID=SD133406

[6] "Does al-Qaeda Have a New Leader?"Globe and Mail (Canada), Oct 28, 2006 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20061028.wxzawahiri28/BNStory/International/home
 

[7] "Video game 'Quest for Bush' lets players kill the president", The Washington Post,
Oct 20, 2006 http://www.tdn.com/articles/2006/10/21/this_day/news01.txt

[8] Full text of President Bush's Address to Congress, DallasNews.com, September 20, 2001.