by Nagi N. Najjar

The Christian Orthodox Serbs should be backed by the Bush Administration to contain an ever-expanding Islamic terrorism that is emerging in Europe, using the Balkans as a transit route to strike out at the United States. Former President Clinton made three strategic mistakes that led to 9/11, and all three mistakes of the Clinton Administration were influenced by Saudi Arabia.

1- The suppression of the military force of the Serbs in the area. The Saudi regime pushed the Clinton Administration to fuel anti-Western Jihad in the heart of Europe and backed and financed the Islamic rebels in the Balkans. To win this horrific war against terrorism - which is costing the US every day 3-4 casualties, destabilizing the West, and helping al-Qaida expand its presence in Europe - the U.S. should help create the re-emergence of the Serb factor in Yugoslavia that will help suppress and prevent Islamic fundamentalist euphoria gaining a better foothold in Europe, en route to hitting the United States. This should be done even at the cost of releasing Milosevic, if his liberation will enable the U.S. to win this war on terrorism.

The breakdown of the Serbs and the emergence of the Bosnian Muslim government, backed by Saudi Arabia, was one of the causes that galvanized and consolidated Islamic fundamentalism, encouraging it to hit the United States on September 11th 2001. This balance of force should be rectified to the advantage of the Serbs, as the security of the world cannot wait for the impact of another 9/11 and the ramifications of Islamic terrorism against the West.

2- The betrayal of Southern Lebanon and its surrender to Syria by the Clinton Administration, which put extensive pressure on the Ehud Barak government in Israel to abandon the South Lebanon Security Zone. Syria, instead of respecting its commitments to the US, prevented the Lebanese army from deploying in the south and allowed Hezbollah to fill the vacuum with 10,000 Iranian rockets, in order to blackmail, terrorize and pressure the State of Israel in every Middle East initiative.

This surprise move by the Clinton Administration foreshadowed the strategic choice for all Islamic terrorist organizations, from Hamas and Hezbollah to al-Qaida - to increase their terror and military attacks against Israel and the US in order to guarantee an Islamic superiority against Western influence in the Middle East.

Winning the war against terrorism requires the US to allow Israel to rectify Clinton's errors by reversing the equation in Southern Lebanon, leading up to Beirut installing a pro-Western government in Lebanon, free from Syrian-Hezbollah influence. And let this be accomplished even at the expense of striking the Syrian military and changing the nature of this regime, which has been practicing terrorism against the free world for almost three decades.

The military cooperation between Israel and a free Lebanon should be reevaluated, reconstructed and consolidated, to stabilize the area against fundamentalism.

3- Israel should be authorized to act and not react. This peace was imaginary and only existed in Clinton's imagination. All the pro-Oslo groups in Israel and in the US exerted pressure on Israel to forge a peace agreement between Israel and Palestinian radicals. This is the cause that fueled all the violence in the Middle East. This negative policy should be reversed.

Our preference at the Lebanese Foundation for Peace is a Republican leadership for the White House, but in politics, no one knows what tomorrow brings. If the Democrats should win the US elections, we hope they will not repeat the strategic mistake of former U.S. President William Jefferson Clinton, which enabled the intifada to reach a dangerous stage in Israel, boosted by the forced withdrawal of the IDF from Southern Lebanon, as that Hezbollah victory significantly consolidated the terror campaign in Israel and the entire Middle East.

The US should stop dreaming and stop this futile diplomacy that will lead to more bloodshed and violence.

Reality anticipates the departure of Yasser Arafat from the Palestinian arena, including a number of terror figures with him. Heaven or hell will enable the Palestinian society to create a moderate state at the end of the day. As long as this man, Arafat, lives, the Palestinian state will never see the light and peace will never see a future.

Arafat is the obstacle to peace and not the solution. Secretary of State Powell should save some time, as there is only one solution to this problem and Prime Minister Sharon knows what it is and how to implement Arafat's removal. There are moderate voices in the Palestinian street that are intimidated by the terror of Arafat and these voices should be supported to create this Palestinian state after his departure from center stage.

The Republican leadership has demonstrated courage in selecting the correct path to win the war against terror, and we hope that all Congress will unite in this worthy and important cause.

The incompetence of the previous Administration forced President Bush to do what is necessary to win security and peace in the world. Still, President Bush is missing a few tactical points in his strategy to win against terror: Syria should be addressed, not by sanctions, but by military means. If, for political reasons, the U.S. cannot afford this initiative at this time, the U.S. should allow Israel to change, once and for all, the geopolitical map of the area towards a more secure, balanced Middle East, which is in the security interest of the United States.

If these three demands are not met, the US will fail in Iraq, in its strategic approach in the war against terror and in taking advantage of the entire Middle East momentum. And France will pick up that momentum afterward.

Today is not a day for diplomacy, as we are in a time of war.France is doing everything in its power to see the US fail in Iraq, to see the Bush Administration fail in the next elections and to regain influence and control of Iraq should the US leave defeated. At a time when Syria and Iran are applying their Middle East strategy against the US on the ground, inflicting daily casualties, the political double standard of France is playing into their grand strategy worldwide. This is what Jacques Chirac is articulating.

A futile US Diplomacy today is losing, politically, the victory achieved by the Department of Defense. This should not be allowed to continue. While Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld is severely criticized for partisan reasons - this is an election period - the fight of the United Sates should not be diverted from attaining victory against terrorism.

By selecting the right strategy against terrorism, selecting the right military interventions to achieve peace, we can destroy the infrastructure of terror. Today is the day for Secretary of Defense Ronald Rumsfeld and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel.

For a better Middle East, a free World and a secure United States.

Copyright 2003 Arutz Sheva
Posted for Fair Use only.