Know The Enemy

Peter Wehner, deputy assistant to the President and Director of the Office of Strategic Intiatives, has an excellent article in the OPJ online that does a very good job of defining the enemy, after five years it is about time. The Barnyard has tried to define Islamo-fascism many times and will continue to do so because the threat is real and incredibly dangerous. This is a must read.
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Concluding Thoughts

It is the fate of the West, and in particular the United States, to have to deal with the combined threat of Shia and Sunni extremists. And for all the differences that exist between them--and they are significant--they share some common features.

Their brandand of radicalism is theocratic, totalitarian, illiberal, expansionist, violent, and deeply anti-Semitic and anti-American. As President Bush has said, both Shia and Sunni militants want to impose their dark vision on the Middle East. And as we have seen with Shia-dominated Iran's support of the Sunni terrorist group Hamas, they can find common ground when they confront what they believe is a common enemy.

The war against global jihadism will be long, and we will experience success and setbacks along the way. The temptation of the West will be to grow impatient and, in the face of this long struggle, to grow weary. Some will demand a quick victory and, absent that, they will want to withdraw from the battle. But this is a war from which we cannot withdraw. As we saw on September 11th, there are no safe harbors in which to hide. Our enemies have declared war on us, and their hatreds cannot be sated. We will either defeat them, or they will come after us with the unsheathed sword.

All of us would prefer years of repose to years of conflict. But history will not allow it. And so it once again rests with this remarkable republic to do what we have done in the past: our duty.

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War against a fanatical enemy is not an easy thing nor is war ever a pretty thing but it must be fought and fought to win. War won our liberty and has preserved that liberty for but a drop in the rain of time and as Thomas Jeffersom once said:" The tree of Liberty must be watered with the blood of tyrants and patriots". The problem is we don't face a nation we face an "Ummah" a "Borg" like collective, that wants to kill us because we aren't a part of them, "assimilate or die". For 'Trekkies' the comparison is obvious and yes, the Barnyard is a big fan of Star Trek in all its reincarnations.The US is the Enterprise and Bush is Picard, almost, fighting the Borg.