At War?

Al-Qaeda and other Islamic militant groups have been terrorizing and killing innocent people in the United States and the rest of the non-Moslem world, calling their cowardly and heinous acts necessary steps in what they call jihad or holy war. Al Qaeda soldiers sent by their leaders to blow themselves up with bombs to kill "enemies" are considered warriors who are willing to sacrifice their life for victory.

But not all suicide bombers succeeded in their mission as we have seen in the failed bomb attack against a Northwest airliner over Detroit by the 23-year-old Nigerian on Christmas day.

As soon as the plane landed in Detroit, the Nigerian terrorist was taken into custody by American civilian authorities that provided him with a lawyer and advised him that he has Miranda rights.

In short, the jihad fighter was going to be investigated and tried as a common criminal in an American civilian court, not in a military court as a prisoner of war, even though President Obama has finally acknowledged that America is at war with al-Qaeda.

The reasoning of the Obama administration goes like this: the bombing that could have killed nearly 300 passengers was attepted aboard an American airplane over an American city. Therefore, the would-be murderer should be tried in a civilian court in the United States.

But not many people in this country seem to realize that this way of thinking, based on the spirit of fairness and justice, will, nevertheless, infuriate the al-Qaeda leadership. Just try to imagine the intensity of anger and frustration that al-Qaeda leaders felt when they heard that their "warriors" who had failed to carry out their mission were caught by the enemy and were being held for a jury trial as a criminal by an American court.

They would think, "How dare the Americans treat our valiant and invincible warriors" as common criminals? If the situation were reversed, al-Qaeda leaders would put their American captives on television for all the world to see and forced them to confess their crime before executing them.

"But we are not like them," one liberral American politician declared in a televised debate here the other day. "We are not like the ruthless barbarians who ignore the basic rights of other people and who refuse to abide by international rules."

He said that unlike many of our aqdversaries, Americans believe even a terrorist who tries to kill hundreds of people deserves a day in court and that he should be treated fairly with a firm sense of justice, at least until he is proven guilty. He added that that is why Americans believe all those terrorists should be tried in civilian courts.

That is also why, they insist, all the Islamic prisoners held at Guantanamo prison should be moved to civilian prisons elsewhere and some of them should even be released.

These, of course, are admirable--even noble--thoughts and beliefs. But would our enemies understand, much less appreciate, the American sense of fairness and justice? I doubt it. In fact, I would be surprised if the members of al-Qaeda and other enemies of America, didn't laugh at what they believe was the "hypocritical attitude of the Americans" as well as "the naivety" of U.S. foreign policymakers.

The truth of the matter is that all those callous al-Qaeda leaders could not care less about the fate of their failed fighters while it is the Americans, especially the breast-beating liberals, who are concerned about the rights and well-being of the enemy soldiers in their captivity.

"We don't care how our adversaries behave," the afore-mentioned politician said. "We should simply do what we believe is right." But the problem is that this kind of thinking is taken by al-Qaeda as a sign of weakness; it also encourages them to keep attacking Americans.

This means that we cannot always be idealistic in politics in general and in our relations with other nations in particular, especially when the people of some of these countries are out to kill us for one reason or anolther. Nor can we ignore the mentality as well as cultures of those people and try to judge them with our own standard alone. We should try and understand their way of thinking, if we are to counter their future attacks and eventually defeat them.

It is often impossible to talk sensibly to an irrational people. There is a saying in Asia that the only medicine that works on mad dogs is a club with which we can beat sense into them. This saying, I realize, has an unfortunate choice of words, but the fact is, the only that will compel fanatical people to come to their senses is brute and merciless force with which we can deal a decisive and crippling blow to them.

If we are at war with al-Qaeda, as the president declared, then we must fight with full force and unwavering determination in order to win. We shouldn't, in other words, make half-hearted and ludicrous efforts like, for instance, attempting to try the captured enemy combatants in civilian courts like common domestic criminals.
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