Muslim support for suicide attacks, bin Laden down: poll

From AFP.

The number of Muslims around the world who say suicide attacks are acceptable has fallen sharply in the past six years, as has Muslims' confidence in Osama bin Laden, a survey by a US think-tank showed Thursday.

Many pundits tell us that our War on Terror has only incited Muslims. However, as this article shows, the War on Terror has hit home with most Muslims. Overwhelmingly, they do not like suicide attacks. While the article states,

But, the Pew Research Center warned in its Global Attitudes Project, significant minorities of Muslims in eight countries surveyed continue to endorse suicide bombings and support the Al-Qaeda leader.

This significant minority of Muslims is never above 1/3 for suicide attacks and is a similar low percentage for support for Osama Bin Laden.

The question becomes why?

First, extremists muslims have killed fellow muslims which has caused intellectual turbulence among muslims. In fact, their attacks, especially in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, are almost solely directed against fellow muslims.

Second, the extremists have lost in Iraq thanks to the surge of American forces which provided time for the Iraqi Army to build capacity. If we would have pulled out of Iraq and left it a quaqmire, I am sure support for Osama Bin Laden and suicide attacks would have been much higher.

Finally, as I have stated before, people, whether muslim, christian, or other, just want to be able to work and provide for their family. Extremist muslims, the type supported by Bin Laden who commit suicide attacks, prevent this from happening when they extort money, blow up shops, prevent commerce, etc, etc. Fellow muslims see and know this effect firsthand. They do not like it.

We must use this drop in popularity to our advantage in the information war against muslim extremists. This change in attitude is important to capitalize on. Bullets will never win this war. Changes in attitudes will. Changes in attitudes are happening.

They Killed General Hajj

W. Thomas Smith, Jr, writing for Townhall, comments on Lebanon General. Francois Hajj, who was assassinated Wednesday and expected to take over as head of the military if General Michel Suleiman was elected as Lebanon's President.

Three motives for killing General Hajj are given in the article by Dr. Walid Phares.

1. Demoralize the Lebanese Army.

2. Prevent him from becoming the next head of the Lebanese Military.

3. Revenge killing for his engineering of Fatah al Islam's defeat a few months ago in Lebanon.

Later, however, Mr. Smith gives a fourth and important motive.

From what I knew of Gen. Hajj – and admittedly that knowledge is limited to what I learned while there -- he was a good man. He was a “strong man,” as others have said. He was a man who wanted freedom and democracy in Lebanon. He wanted the truth told about what is actually happening in Lebanon, and what was and is too often not reported, or what is manipulated by the Axis-influenced media. And now they have killed him.

The Axis forces that Dr. Walid Phares points to in the article want the top three motives he points to as they weaken the Lebanese government and strengthen Hezbollah and other jihadist forces in Lebanon. However, first and foremost, all these parties want to destroy the Cedar Revolution and the fragile democracy in Lebanon.

The Axis forces are doing this in Iraq. The Axis forces are doing this in the Gaza Strip. The Axis forces are now supporting the Taliban against another young democracy in Afghanistan.

While I know we do not have the ground forces available in the U.S. Military to go after the leading Axis country, Iran, we do have the air and sea forces to signifcantly disrupt their country and hence their ability to export terror.

Fellow peers point out to me that if we attack Iran, we are just asking for more interference in our ventures in Afghanistan and Iraq.

I point out to them, can it be worse than killing 10,000's of Iraqis, 1,000's of Afghanistanis, 100's of Palestinians, and attempting to destroy a young demorcracy in Lebanon. Quite frankly, diplomacy has failed to get them back in their box for over six years.

Bullies continue to be bullies until they are confronted at which point they either run away, get more friends to help them, or get more weapons to make them invincible. The Iranian leadership (and the whole Axis in general) is nothing more than a bunch of bullies. While they have friends they will surely call upon, calling upon them makes them play their hand on our timetable. We must confront the bully prior to them getting nuclear weapons.

Iran has been bullying the Middle East for almost three decades. Its high time to stick up to the bully, expose his friends, and put them in their place before they have weapons capable of massive destruction.

Its high time to put them in their place prior to them killing more innocent people and destroying democracies which are trying their best to enhance life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for their people.

This fact is, after all, what our Founding Fathers charged us with in the beginning for the Creator did not only endow Americans with these unalienable rights, but all people.