Why Fund The Terrorists?

By:  Rachel Marsden

If you're an Islamic terrorist who wants to buddy up to the west, apparently all it takes is removing your "man jammies" and putting on a suit. Seriously, if Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper decides to reinstate millions of dollars worth of funding to Palestinian President and Fatah Party leader Mahmoud Abbas, that's exactly what will have been proven.

Abbas says he's going to use the money to kill terrorist rivals, Hamas. Okay, let's look at the track record of a supposedly anti-terrorist Muslim leader:

Pakistani President Pervez "Pervy" Musharraf only cooperated with the US after 9/11 for fear of getting a whipping. And even so, his idea of getting tough on the Taliban was to offer them room and board in the northwestern part of his country (Waziristan).

President Bush has given President Pervy several pep talks because the terrorists in Waziristan are making daytrips into bordering Afghanistan to knock off our coalition troops. Al-Qaida's number two man and most prolific recording artist, Ayman al-Zawahiri, is even believed to be cranking out his video hits from the area. (Incidentally, his latest, entitled, "The Advice of One Concerned," inspired my rebuttal, "The Middle Finger of One Ticked Off.")

President Pervy is such a raging success that Islamic extremists recently held and killed Pakistani and foreign civilians inside an Islamabad mosque because they wanted Islamic law to rule the Pakistani capital. And this is the Muslim leader who's supposed to be the West's shining beacon of hope?

So now we're considering investing our millions in Abbas and trusting that he'll clear Hamas out of the house and stop short of any backyard expansion projects into Israel and the west? Why? Because, like President Pervy, he wears a freaking suit? Because he looks like he shops at the Men's Wearhouse? That must be it, because there is no other logical reason for giving him our money.

This is the man who told the Wall Street Journal in 2005 that "Allah loves the martyr," in reference to suicide bombers. In October 2006, he said on PA TV that neither Hamas nor Fatah has to recognize Israel. And he calls terrorists freedom fighters.

Rather than trusting Muslims to knock off other Muslims and then taking our chances that they'll actually behave, I have a better idea.

There's a predominantly Christian nation in Africa that has proven itself capable of putting aid money to excellent use in wiping out terrorists: Ethiopia. If the west is looking for proxy armies in the Mideast, the Ethies would be in and out and back home in no time. Maybe Bono can even pitch in and revive the Live Aid benefit that sent them all that cash in the '80s? Then they can buy more fighter jets like the ones they fired up to take out the Islamic extremists in southern Somalia, at the request of the Somalian government. If you don't remember hearing about it, that's because their war on terror only lasted a few weeks. Sure, they took out strategic targets and airports, and there were injuries and deaths -- but then it was all over before the left could start whining about it.

Such a heartwarming Cinderella story. The solution to the war on terror isn't in flooding the Mideast with cash. It's in Somalia. If Abbas was really serious about wiping out terrorists, he'd start by inviting the Ethies over for a visit.
 

PUBLISHED:  TORONTO SUN (July 15/07)

COPYRIGHT 2007 RACHEL MARSDEN