The War On Terrorism           just how bad does America want to win

America is at war with Terrorism. The last war they were involved in was in Viet Nam. They went into that war intent on winning, but after a while they just stopped trying to win. Not the soldiers - I'm talking about the American Government.

Life Liberty & The Pursuit Of Happiness ran the following article, which you should read. The author has views on what America has to do to win this war:

To win a war

The past year has seen our troops in Iraq embroiled in a low-intensity conflict, which they are not allowed to win. Although they could, easily, but for the political sensitivities of the Bush administration. This post is to provide a simple remedy. Simple to state; devilishly hard to execute.
The essence of the argument is that we are not really at war. In a war, one identifies the enemy, and destroys their ability to wage war against us. The enemy in this war is the Islamic world’s promotion of terror against us. This includes virtually every regime, even those we usually label as “friendly.” Actually, especially those.
So-called Islamic terrorism can not exist without oil money, which flows principally from the Gulf states and Iran. But it really isn’t Islamic – when was the last time you heard of some imam or mullah strap on explosives to die for Allah? Never. It isn’t about Allah. It’s about keeping the people under control, giving them an “other", Israel, the Jews, Americans, to hate. And thereby keeping their populations’ minds off of the failures of the Arab states.
Further, terrorism, of any sort, can not exist without the virulent propoganda that flows, virtually unchecked, in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Iran, and elsewhere in the Arab and Muslim world. Carried by al-Jazeera, which soft-headed people in the West applaud as “the Arab CNN” (They may be more right than they think, given CNN’s obvious anti-American slant).
What helps fuel terror is state-sponsored propoganda that depicts Jews, Americans, and Christians generally as evil infidels. What gives Arab terror an Islamic impramitur is the way in which Islam is practiced in Saudi Arabia, and now, around the globe. Simply stated, terrorism can not exist without the full support of the mosques, especially wahhabi, which are government-sponsored and whose worldwide metastasis is funded by our “friends” the Saudis.
The source of all of this comes back, again and again, not just to a few Islamic “charities". These are noise. The real problem, the cancerous heart of Islamic terror, is to be found in the unwarranted oil riches that these corrupt kingdoms and kelptocracies happen to be sitting on.
Unless and until we act as if we were truly at war, we will never win. What we must do is deprive the Arab world of its oil. Without the West, there would be no Arab oil, except in concept. Without the West, the Arabs could not pump a dram of the stuff. The answer isn’t to use less. The world’s developing nations, especially China and India, are ravenous for oil. If American imported none from the Middle East, billions of unearned wealth would continue to pour into the Gulf states.
It is time to stop pretending that our enemies are our friends. It is time to take over the Saudi oil fields and destroy wahhabism. It is time to start regime change by ultra-violent means.; by decaptitation, and to hell with nation building. Let them starve, or come to us with cup in hand, fully disarmed.
Saudis first. Then the other fetid and corrupt Gulf states. Then Syria. By that time, it might become obvious and we might start to see some changes from within in places like Iran and Egypt. The essence is that if we are at war, and acted as if we were, then a few successes would breed more. But the “war on terror", as it has been prosecuted to date, has been a stingy and half-hearted affair. We are too delicate; too worried about what might appear on al-Jazeera to inflame further the Arabs.
The lesson is that we should not care what our enemies think. Did we take a poll among the Germans before we crossed the Rhine in World War II? I do not believe, however, that the United States has the will to even acknowledge these truths. We are strong in things like arms, but weak in our will to use our strength. Until our will matches our power, we in effect will hobble along, gaining the odd victory (Afghanistan, for example), while not even being able to subdue a third-rate power like Iraq.
There are no guarantees. There never are. But without the will to actually define who our enemies are, and to defeat them totally, we will forever be fighting a war of attrition, ever on the edge of the problem but never attacking its heart.
Because we are far too concerned with their hearts and minds. We want to be loved. Because of this, we are unloved, and, worse, despised as weak. Which in the real sense is accurate. I prefer a great Democrat’s philosophy. Lyndon Baines Johnson famously said, “if you grab them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow.” Sound advice. In the Arab world, their gonads are the oil fields. It is time to grab.

Pretty heavy stuff. But the more you stop and think about it, the more the above sinks in as being 'what it is'. Hey, I'm not saying press the button. But let's just think this through:

   -       Bush says he's going to eliminate terrorists, no matter how long it takes
   -       The Islamic Extremists won't quit till the last man, woman, and child self-explodes
   -       The UN has been criticized of late for sitting on their duffs
   -       Yasser Arafat's replacement is sympathetic to the Islamic cause

Nowadays its not safe for an American to walk the streets in Europe. Someday soon it may be a lot less safe to walk their own streets as witnessed by 9/11. Can Homeland Security stop the influx of terrorists? Will the Bush Government just say to hell with it and go for the button?

Allah be with us!