First, the stylistic: Where is the capitalization of proper nouns in the Canadian piece? Marines refers specifically to members of the United States Marine Corps, rather than a generic reference to land forces specializing in operation from the sea, and therefore Marines should be capitalized.

And now, the strategic: I do not think there is much future in seeking friendship with the Taliban. While developing good relationships between NATO forces and the Afghan population is beneficial, it is very important to remember that it is the Taliban, and their draconian interpretation of Islam, that provided a haven to al Qaeda. Islamism is no more suitable for Western tolerance than fascism or communism are. Islamism is the engine that produces riots in response to cartoons. It is what drives men to murder thousands in hijackings. It is what supposedly justifies the use of mentally-disabled persons as human ammunition. But not only is Islamism repugnant for what it does, it is irreconcilable in its doctrine. Islamists do not seek lasting peace with the West. It is a violation of their core beliefs to accept any such thing. The Islamists consider enmity against non-believers to be required by their faith. They consider non-believers to include not only non-Muslims, but also those Muslims who do not share their particularly aggressive beliefs. If anything, they reserve their greatest hatred for this latter group, accusing them of apostasy.

The West is at war with a culture that prefers death to peace. The Islamist enemy inspires and directs attacks committed by people for whom an act of terror is not a means to an ends so much as it is an ends of its own. They will not stop their attacks when faced with evidence that their victims are nice people. They don’t care if their victims are nice people. It is completely irrelevant to them. They see their duty as suppressing, and eventually erasing, all competing belief systems. In their eyes, if Western societies do something kind, such as by providing humanitarian assistance, then they do it as temptation. To the Islamist, Satan, that most popular title for all that is American, is first and foremost a whispering, taunting, sweet-talking master of temptation, seeking to lure believers from their faith. It is through this lens that the enemy sees us.

Obviously, the enemy finds himself a minority, even in the remote wilds of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Were this not so, there would be a hell of a lot more stuff blowing up. Efforts to “win the hearts and minds” may then yield substantive results among those who do not truly subscribe to the belief system of AQ and the Taliban, but I don’t think it will achieve much with regard to the die-hard enemy.

I think Pakistani efforts to “negotiate” with the Islamists are similarly doomed to failure.

There is not room enough in this world for both Western republics and Islamist fanaticism. Somebody’s gotta go.