The Winning Hand

The War on Terror and its United States involvement is a highly controversial topic. The most accurate portrayals of U.S. involvement shouldn’t only be based on what the mainstream media would like its U.S. citizens to believe (by – select facts and events), but on making an educated look into the series of events pertaining to the Islamic Jihad and terrorism all around the globe. Looking beyond the corruption of the media that traces terrorism only back to the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, or claiming that U.S. involvement boils down to the seizure of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) from Saddam Hussein, a glimpse into the ways of extreme Islam fascism can be used to determine the real issue at hand: extreme followers of the religion want to eliminate non-followers, or infidels, anywhere in the world in any way possible, and groups of this extreme nature have existed for centuries. The United States are not the only country of non-Muslims and non-Islamic people on the planet.

Former Secretary of State George Pratt Shultz realized this when delivering the Kissinger Lecture in February of 2004. In it, he elaborated on an in-depth look on terrorism; “A Changed World” was the transcript of that speech. Shultz claims that the state system by which the United States government is run “has been eroding, [and] terrorists have exploited this weakness.” He also says that to combat the rise of Islamofascist terrorism, the task at hand should be “restoring the vitality of the state system.” In the past decade or so, the state system has been rapidly declining in its decisions towards terrorist organizations and other threats to the security of the country, further allowing terrorists to make their move. This is how many conceive the idea that terrorism is a more recent disruption of the civilized world, rather than the ancient issue that it‘s always been. Based on his knowledge, Shultz had formed the opinion that the battle against Saddam Hussein, one particularly significant battle in the War on Terror, is necessary; after decades of dealing with the tyrant, who committed war crimes involving chemical and biological weapons and who failed to comply with United Nations resolutions, someone had to make a move. However, before any was made, inspections for WMDs in his possession stopped for a full four years, beginning in 1998, giving Hussein ample time to do what he wished with them if present. “The international system had given up its ability to monitor and deal with this threat,” Shultz writes.