The Austin American Statesman Editorial - McCaul: Jihadist threat has strengthened for decades

McCaul: Jihadist threat has strengthened for decades
The following is an Op-ed by Congressman McCaul which ran in the Austin American Statesman on Saturday, September 23rd.

Last week, the House of Representatives passed a resolution honoring the victims and heroes of Sept. 11, 2001. After commemorating the anniversary of the attacks, we must remember that the threat is still very real today. This threat did not begin on Sept. 11 as many believe.

The year 1979 transformed the Middle East and spread the seeds of Islamic jihadism that are being reaped today. That year, Islamic fundamentalists supported by the Ayatollah Khomeni overthrew the shah, then stormed our embassy in Iran taking dozens of Americans hostage.

That same year, the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, planting the seeds of jihad for al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.

Since 1979, Islamic extremists have repeatedly attacked Americans and U.S. interests. They killed our Marines in Beirut, they struck the Khobar Towers, they took down Pan Am Flight 103, they bombed our embassies in Africa, they defeated us in Somalia, and they attacked the USS Cole. Ramzi Yousef and his al Qaeda associates bombed the World Trade Center in 1993.

Each time, we failed to respond. The United States was a sleeping giant. And not until the bloodiest alarm of 9/11 did the giant finally awake. America cannot go back to sleep again.

Bin Laden has called for the destruction of the Jews and the West in graphic terms. He says al Qaeda has "the right to kill 4 million Americans, 2 million of them children." The extremists have no regard for human life, including their own, and are intent on taking ours.

There is another storm brewing in the Middle East. Through groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, Iran today is the global epicenter of terrorism and its largest supporter.

The president of Iran has called for the destruction of Israel and the West, and has even denied the Holocaust took place. Iran and its terrorist arm Hezbollah are responsible for the current conflicts between Israel and Lebanon.

Iran's state-sponsored terrorism is real, but consider the horrific concept of Iran as a nuclear threat to Israel and the world. This, in fact, is the goal of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Iran envisions a greater empire of Islamic fanaticism through Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories.

Iran has started producing nuclear fuel in direct opposition to United Nations mandates. The International Atomic Energy Agency has found traces of highly enriched uranium in Iranian nuclear facilities, and Iran kicked out the U.N. inspectors. Ahmadinejad's open defiance of the IAEA and the United Nations means that we cannot treat these as idle threats. This dangerous program is meant to build a nuclear Iran — a nuclear weapon for the Islamic jihad movement. We cannot allow it to go forward.

In this context, the doctrine of mutually assured destruction, the deterrent that worked during the Cold War, would have no meaning. Islamic jihadists place no value on life and are blinded by the false glorification of martyrdom; MAD is not a constraint, but rather an inducement to attain the final goal.

For those who believe this is a regional conflict from which we should disengage, one need only look at the close relationship between Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Iran. That friendship puts Iran's threat of nuclear proliferation in our own hemisphere and indeed in our own back yard.

We must continue to pursue peace through diplomacy, but we must not shrink from our responsibility through the option of strength. We must take advantage of internal resistance and change from within Iran to avert this path of mutual destruction. The policies and extremist views of Iran's religious mullahs are not representative of all Iranians. Many desire freedom and are willing to fight for it. I have met with them, and we should do everything we can to forward their cause. Now is the time for them to save their country, their society and their religion.

Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir once said of her country's enemies, "For us to prevail, those who intend to destroy us must love their own children more than they hate us."

In the end, we will not win this war on terror with military might alone. Ultimate victory will be achieved only by winning over their hearts and minds in the war of ideas. I am confident that in the final analysis, the ideals of our Founding Fathers, of freedom and democracy for the human spirit, will prevail.

McCaul is on the Homeland Security Committee and is chairman of the Subcommittee on Investigations. He also is on the International Relations Committee.

http://www.mccaulforcongress.com/node/11