Reply to Mr. Pipes

Submitted by Aaron (United States), Dec 31, 2005 at 08:30

Daniel Pipes replies:

1) I was against the overthrow of Saddam Hussein until the sanctions regime fell apart in 1998 and ever since have supported that step. I do have criticisms of the post-Saddam effort, seeing it as too engaged, too ambitious, and too rushed.

2) I have always seen the war in Iraq has basically unrelated to the war on radical Islam.

====

Aaron replies:

Dear Mr. Pipes,

You have made the point on many an occasion that, in order to win this war, we must know who we are fighting. While you claim to have always made a distinction between the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and the war on radical Islam, most of this country has not made such a distinction (including the executive branch of our government). Notably, such a distinction has not been explicit in your writings.

I agree that we must know who we are fighting if we are to win this war. Towards that end, I encourage you to make a clearer distinction in your writings between the invasion of Iraq and the war against Islamism. As long as the majority of Americans (including the President) can't explain the difference between Hussein and Zarqawi, we have no hope of winning this war.

-Aaron

---

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".