[Jo Sul]

And finally . . . (yep, probably TOO long) . . .

> Allow me, for a moment, to depart from my alleged role as a taxi
> driver and return to science. When you have a malignant tumor, you may
> remove the tumor itself surgically. You may also starve it by preventing
> new blood from reaching it from other parts of the body, thereby
> preventing new "supplies" from expanding the tumor. If you want to be
> sure, it is best to do both.
>
> But before you fight and win, by force or otherwise, you have to
> realize that you are in a war, and this may take Europe a few more
> years. In order to win, it is necessary first to eliminate the terrorist
> regimes so that no Government in the world will serve as a safe haven
> for these people. I do not want to comment here on whether the
> American-led attack on Iraq was justified from the point of view of
> weapons of mass destruction or any other pre-war argument, but I can
> look at the post-war map of Western Asia. Now that Afghanistan, Iraq,
> and Libya are out, two and a half terrorist states remain: Iran, Syria,
> and Lebanon, the latter being a Syrian colony. Perhaps Sudan should be
> added to the list. As a result of the conquest of Afghanistan and Iraq,
> both Iran and Syria are now totally surrounded by territories unfriendly
> to them. Iran is encircled by Afghanistan, by the Gulf States, Iraq and
> the Moslem republics of the former Soviet Union. Syria is surrounded by
> Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, and Israel. This is a significant strategic change
> and it applies strong pressure on the terrorist countries. It is not
> surprising that Iran is so active in trying to incite a Shiite uprising
> in Iraq. I do not know if the American plan was actually to encircle
> both Iran and Syria, but that is the resulting situation.
>
> In my humble opinion, the number one danger to the world today is
> Iran and its regime. It definitely has ambitions to rule vast areas and
> to expand in all directions. It has an ideology that claims supremacy
> over Western culture. It is ruthless. It has proven that it can execute
> elaborate terrorist acts without leaving too many traces, using Iranian
> embassies It is clearly trying to develop nuclear weapons. Its
> so-called moderates and conservatives play their own virtuoso version of
> the "good-cop versus bad-cop" game. Iran sponsors Syrian terrorism, it
> is certainly behind much of the action in Iraq, it is fully funding the
> Hezbollah and, through it, the Palestinian Hamas and Islamic Jihad. It
> performed acts of terror at least in Europe and in South America and
> probably also in Uzbekistan and Saudi Arabia and it truly leads a
> multi-national terror consortium, which includes, as minor players,
> Syria, Lebanon, and certain Shiite elements in Iraq. Nevertheless, most
> European countries still trade with Iran, try to appease it, and refuse
> to read the clear signals.
>
> In order to win the war it is also necessary to dry up the financial
> resources of the terror conglomerate. It is pointless to try to
> understand the subtle differences between the Sunni terror of Al Qaida
> and Hamas and the Shiite terror of Hezbollah, Sadr and other
> Iranian-inspired enterprises. When it serves their business needs, all
> of them collaborate beautifully
>
> It is crucial to stop Saudi and other financial support of the outer
> circle, which is the fertile breeding ground of terror. It is important
> to monitor all donations from the Western World to Islamic
> organizations, to monitor the finances of international relief
> organizations, and to react with forceful economic measures to any small
> sign of financial aid to any of the three circles of terrorism. It is
> also important to act decisively against the campaign of lies and
> fabrications and to monitor those Western media that collaborate with it
> out of naivety, financial interests, or ignorance.
>
> Above all, never surrender to terror. No one will ever know whether
> the recent elections in Spain would have yielded a different result if
> not for the train bombings a few days earlier. But it really does not
> matter. What matters is that the terrorists believe that they caused the
> result and that they won by driving Spain out of Iraq. The Spanish story
> will surely end up being extremely costly to other European countries,
> including France, which is now expelling inciting preachers and
> forbidding veils and including others who sent troops to Iraq. In the
> long run, Spain itself will pay even more.
>
> Is the solution a democratic Arab world? If by democracy we mean
> free elections but also free press, free speech, a functioning judicial
> system, civil liberties, equality to women, free international travel,
> exposure to international media and ideas, laws against racial
> incitement and defamation, and avoidance of lawless behavior regarding
> hospitals, places of worship and children, then yes, democracy is the
> solution. If democracy is just free elections, it is likely that the
> most fanatical regime will be elected, the one whose incitement and
> fabrications are the most inflammatory. We have seen it already in
> Algeria and, to a certain extent, in Turkey. It will happen again, if
> the ground is not prepared very carefully. On the other hand, a certain
> transitional democracy, as in Jordan, may be a better temporary
> solution, paving the way for the real thing, perhaps in the same way
> that an immediate sudden democracy did not work in Russia and would not
> have worked in China.
>
> I have no doubt that the civilized world will prevail. But the
> longer it takes us to understand the new landscape of this war, the more
> costly and painful the victory will be. Europe, more than any other
> region, is the key. Its understandable recoil from wars, following the
> horrors of World War II, may cost thousands of additional innocent
> lives, before the tide will turn.