Our Timidity Emboldens Our Enemies

Too soon, cracks are forming in America’s resolve. The air war over Afghanistan is not bringing instant satisfaction. The Bush administration has made a bumbling start on homeland security. Congress is rushing to the aid of--who else--campaign contributors.

Call it a lapse of cynicism on my part, but I didn’t expect this to happen so swiftly.

Our enemies are surely heartened. This is what they expected. What they hoped for.

The thing is, they’ve seen America cut and run, and so have I.

I was on the beach at Mogadishu, Somalia, the night sky glowing red with tracer bullets. The perimeter of U.S. Marines grew smaller and smaller with each wave of retreating landing craft, until finally we were gone. Fanatical men in their flowing skirts cursed the infidels goodbye. So much for peacekeeping.

Our enemies have seen America promise big and deliver little, and so have I.

I was in the refugee camps after the calamity of Rwanda’s civil war, where the fresh dead were shoveled up by skip-loader day after day. The U.S. president promised that this country would do all it could to stop the agony. I watched the arrival of a handful of Army troops to provide drinking water for the refugee camps. Then I watched their departure soon thereafter. So much for doing all we could.

They’ve seen America pull up short, and so have I.

I was at the U.S. Army forward assault base Viper near the Euphrates River when the 100-hour war against Iraq was called off. The U.S. did not want to offend the sensibilities of Saudi Arabia or our coalition partners who, in turn, did not want to offend Islamic fundamentalists. So much for ending the tyranny of Saddam Hussein.

Oh, but this is different now. We were attacked.

Yes, it’s different.

But like it or not, we are haunted by a past that is no cause for pride. The foes we now face in those craggy mountains, wind-swept deserts and teeming cities of Islamic discontent are emboldened by America’s legacy of timidity. When we confront them, we stand in the shadow of our own history. They have proved the depth of the suffering that they are willing to endure for their beliefs. For a long while, we have not.

I still believe America will, if only because we don’t have a choice in the matter. But I also believe that our task will be more difficult, and bloodier, because of our past hesitation to engage the world’s misery makers. America is seen as a tentative country because it has been.

Today, among those we call our partners, we see a rising case of the jitters about America’s military action. There are signs of the same at home. Our anti-war movement is stirring. Public opinion polls are starting to show doubts.

Tragically, this means Al Qaeda and its followers have an incentive to let Afghans starve this winter. We cannot bear the thought of such tragedy. They can. They are stealing food right now from the mouths of the hungry and perhaps lacing relief supplies with poison. They are reportedly burrowing into their cities, where schoolchildren, women and old men serve as human shields and PR tokens. They and their kind are willing to sacrifice children. We are not.

The blood of the innocent is the slow fuse on their A-bomb. America cannot meet them on these terms. But we can surprise Al Qaeda’s fanatics with persistence of our own. Every time we hear a call that it’s time to wrap this up, our enemies are strengthened by their resolve to drag it out. President Bush has asked for patience in this endeavor, which is its own form of sacrifice, given the nervous tempo and appetites of the time.

Already, we have endured more death and suffering than we ever imagined. Now a methodical military and political assault on civilization’s deconstructionists will surely mean more of what we think we cannot bear--but perhaps not as much as our enemies seek. They and their sympathizers in the world will exploit our impatience for all they can. Our sacrifice will be to prove that we are not as skittish as they suspect, this time.