America must act now

Nearly a month after testifying before Congress on the progress of our security strategy in Iraq, our commander on the ground, Army Gen. David Petraeus, said that al Qaeda remains “the wolf closest to the sled” and “the enemy bent on causing the most sectarian violence” in the country.

It is essential that we not lose sight of the big picture. Indeed, al Qaeda has been working for some time now to incite civil war in Iraq to undermine our success, create an environment to recruit new terrorists and keep us distracted from its larger plans. But if we left Iraq today, the global threats against us and our way of life would not go away. This threat is much larger than Iraq, and it may be the biggest struggle of our generation.

Al Qaeda’s strategy is all part of a 20-year plan published by associates of al Qaeda’s senior leaders. This blueprint, which began on September 11, moves in several three-year phases. The current phase began in 2007 and focuses on Syria and Turkey. Starting in 2010, al Qaeda will move to overthrow Arab governments and launch electronic attacks on the U.S. economy, culminating in the creation of an “Islamic Caliphate” that will attract powerful strategic allies before a “Total Confrontation” of believers and non-believers gives al Qaeda a “Definitive Victory,” in 2020. At that time “the Islamic state will lead the human race once again to the shore of safety and the oasis of happiness.”

These are not my words, but the documented plans of the al Qaeda leadership. Given the scope of this growing threat, and the numbers of Muslims who have now been radicalized, how can we realistically foil what noted author Lawrence Wright calls their “Master Plan”? Despite our enemies’ designs for a dominant Islamic state, not all Muslims wish to see al Qaeda’s plan succeed. It is a fact that most of the victims of al Qaeda are Muslims. To prevail we must empower the moderates within Islam to stand with us against these radical fundamentalists. They must be given hope and opportunity because “jihad” offers nothing to the young men who join, other than death. With very few cultural heroes in the Arab world, extreme voices drown out moderate voices most of the time.

Muslims in Europe and throughout Arab countries do not have the same economic opportunities as Muslims in America. When oil is taken out of the equation, Finland alone has more exports than the whole Arab world combined. Without oil, there is very little Gross Domestic Product in Arab countries.

Here’s another startling figure: IBM, which topped the U.S. patent list for the 14th consecutive year, earned 3,621 patents in 2006 alone, while the country of Syria accounts for eight patents from 1992-2001. The lack of innovation and economic opportunity fuels the efforts of radicalization. Muslims in the United States represent a small percentage of our prison population, while in France it now exceeds 50 percent. Globally, we must mobilize leadership to address the many problems within Islam.

Because the need for moderate Muslim voices is more important today than ever before, we should be pulling in moderate Arabic speakers to assist our intelligence community at home and abroad. As of last October, only 33 FBI agents have even a limited proficiency in Arabic, and none of them were involved in coordinating investigations of international terrorism.

The U.S. embassy in Baghdad only has 10 employees with a working knowledge of Arabic on its staff of 1,000. Surely, we must do better at empowering reasonable Muslims to help us. And we need to offer opportunities that allow peaceloving, moderate Muslims to condemn terrorism and encourage them with resolutions of support promoting peace between all three “Abrahamic” religions.

The big picture means we must dramatically improve our foreign policy in the Arab world and throughout our allied countries because we should not have to kill hundreds of thousands of people to defend our way of life and extend freedom to future generations. This administration and the next one must engage and empower moderates throughout the Middle East to stand with us against the death, destruction and “Total Confrontation” sought by radical Islam.

Time is of the essence. This month, 138 leading Muslim scholars from every sect of Islam sent a letter to the pope and other Christian leaders warning that if Christians and Muslims do not make peace with each other, the “very survival of the world” is at stake.

Rep. Zach Wamp is ranking member on the House Appropriations Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch.