The world is at war with radical Islam. -The American Interest

The world is at war with radical Islam, no matter what the president says. -The American Interest. In this opinion piece, Peter Berger argues that the war on terror was never about terror and was always a war against radicalism, specifically Islamic radicalism. He argues that both presidents have deliberately downplayed the Islamic origins of the war on terror. Obama, specifically, has claimed that the war is over. He also argues that Al-Qaeda is no longer just an organization, but instead is a movement and massive alliance between many like-minded organizations held together by a common goal. Fighting the United States and Europe, and establishing a Caliphate. Berger goes out of his way to differentiate between radical and non-radical forms of Islam and stresses that we are at war only with the radicals.

My Comment:
An interesting opinion piece that I tend to agree with, for the most part. It's obviously biased to conservatism but the points it raises are valid. Read it all. And, obviously, I agree that there is a huge difference between radical and non-radical Islam.

I've always had some reservations about the way people described the War on Terror. Al-Qaeda has been dead for some time now as a terrorist organization, but they have spawned dozens of copycats and inspired countless acts of terror. Ending the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq won't stop radical Islam. It's a very popular belief system that is incompatible with western values. It's not going to go away and it isn't a problem that can be dealt with diplomatically. The radicals, of course, believe that they are at war with us, so it's not unreasonable to feel the same way about them.

This is not an issue that we can bury our heads in the sand about. It will effect us and Europe directly, and isolationism will only encourage our enemies. This is a generational war and I don't see it ending any time soon. Direct involvement, like in Iraq and Afghanistan isn't a solution either but we can't be unwilling to have military solutions to these issues. I've said before that the War on Terror is essentially World War III and ignoring it won't make it go away.