"Losing My Religion"
Reader comment on item: Has America Learned from 9/11?

Submitted by John Penn (United States), Nov 5, 2004 at 06:16

Regardless how we as the wagers feel about whether Afghanistan and Iraq are two different wars, one thing is certain. The terrorists feel it as one. It may be important to consider why this is the case.

I have never trusted the mere phrase, Al Qaida, to correctly define who we are waging war against. Make no mistake about it. 9/11 has thrust the U.S. into direct military conflict with the middle east as a whole, especially Syria, Iran, Iraq, and Afganistan among others. I am in it for the long hall. But I fear that many of my countryman may not be.

Muslims desparately need to come to terms with the conlusions of fundamentalist Islam. They are going to have to make the hard choice of beating their sword into a plowshare theologically. 9/11 was a manifestation of the current theology.

Our war is against their book in so far as they are willing to really follow it. When they stop following it in the fundamentalist way, our war is over. Unless they write a new book. And that's been done before too. That one is required reading in North Korea.

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