The US is Not Really Fighting Terrorism

I ran across this excellent editorial by Rachel Neuwirth at Arutz Sheva:

Claims that America is engaged in a total war against terrorism are greatly exaggerated. President George Bush cannot selectively fight some terrorists, while ignoring or even supporting other kinds of terrorists, and still claim to be fighting a War on Terror. Bush cannot declare that we oppose all who practice terrorism, including all their supporters, in theory, and then employ a double standard in practice. We cannot say that the 9/11 bombers are terrorists, but that those who blow up busses in Israel are not terrorists because they are engaged in a political process, as was claimed by Secretary of State Colin Powell. This double standard has been a long-term element in US policy, and is not limited to the current Bush Administration and the equivocation in its so-called war on terror.

President Bush is seeking Osama bin-Laden, dead or alive, primarily because he is accused of having attacked us on 9/11, not because he is a menace in general. But at the same time, President Bush is protecting Yasser Arafat, the father of modern terrorism, by demanding that Israel not harm him or even exile him...

America should at least declare moral clarity even if we cannot actually undertake the impossible task of being the world's policeman. We, as a superpower, are more free than other nations to at least speak the truth without having to fear reprisals from powers stronger than ourselves. Unfortunately, we have consistently failed to even speak the moral truth, and so we are seriously compromised in our self-declared war on terror.

[Read the Entire Editorial]