Ideas are harder to kill than terrorists
“We took the liberty to make some enquiries concerning the ground of their pretensions to make war upon nations who had done them no injury, and observed that we considered all mankind as our friends who had done us no wrong, nor had given us any provocation.
The Ambassador answered us that it was founded on the laws of their Prophet; that it was written in their Koran; all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners; that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as prisoners; and the every Muslim who was slain in battle was sure to go the paradise.
From a March 28, 1786, letter written by John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, who were American diplomats at the time, to U.S. Secretary of State, John Jay reporting on their conversation in London with the ambassador from Tripoli regarding piracy by the Barbary States.
“From the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli,…” In this case we decided as a country that diplomacy had run its’ course, our, and the world’s, interests had to be defended. The story has not changed, the idea is the same. Certain people will not be convinced by hope and change. Do we have the will to prevent them from terrorizing all of us? The French seem to have figured it out! Good for them!