(Wall Street Journal) Joseph Lieberman - The three attacks in France last week showed clearly that the international movement of violent Islamist extremism has declared war on Western civilization's foundational values. Radical Islam will continue to threaten what we hold dear unless it is fought and eventually defeated. The truth is that the enemy is stronger today in more places than it was on 9/11 and is gaining more ground than ever. It is also true that homeland defenses are significantly better in the U.S. But wars aren't won on defense. The world must go on the offensive. The civilized nations of the world must acknowledge that we are at war with violent Islamist extremism and that as long as these extremists continue to recruit, attack and expand territorially, the civilized world will continue to lose and the number and frequency of attacks like those in France will increase. The U.S., along with the world's other great powers, should form and lead a global alliance against radical Islam. That alliance must include leading Islamic nations - Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, to name a few - because Muslims who do not share the extremist views of the terrorists constitute the largest number of its victims. The writer is a former four-term U.S. senator from Connecticut.
2015-01-13 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive